Bucky and jockey Lisa Allpress cross the finish line well clear of their rivals in a Rating 65 race over 1000m at Trentham last Saturday. Photo / Supplied
The Hawke's Bay Cup, one of the most time-honoured events on the New Zealand racing calendar, will have a new sponsor this year with Power Farming Hawke's Bay taking it over.
The $75,000 2200m feature race will be run at the Hawke's Bay meeting on April 11 and has an added incentive in that the winner will be exempt from the ballot for the Group 1 Livamol Classic (2040m) at Hastings on October 3.
Power Farming is an international company, with branches in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. It's Hastings-based business has taken over the Hawke's Bay Cup sponsorship and sales manager Ben Munford sees it as a positive move.
"We are excited to be part of Hawke's Bay Racing," Munford said.
"Some of our staff are keen on racing and I have always had a passion for the industry."
This will be Power Farming's first venture into racing sponsorship but Munford says it is a great opportunity to get behind a club that basically supports their own business.
"We provide top of the range tractors bearing the German brand Deutz-Fahr, as well as other great machinery, and there are so many agricultural and horticultural people involved in racing that we feel it is a good time to be part of an industry that is starting to move forward," he said.
Hawke's Bay Racing chairman Eliot Cooper said it is quite poignant that the club has been able to secure a company with such a strong attachment to the agricultural and horticultural sector to sponsor such a time-honoured race.
"Hawke's Bay is an important agricultural and horticultural region in New Zealand and so many people are reliant on those industries," he said.
"It makes sense to have a company that backs those industries involved with one of Hawke's Bay Racing's iconic races."
The Hawke's Bay Cup was first run in 1875 and has been won by some of the legends of the New Zealand racing turf.
Hi-Jinx won it in 1960 before going on to take out that year's Melbourne Cup while Fury's Order won it in 1974 and Surfers Paradise in 1993 before they both went on to take out Australasia's greatest weight-for-age race, the Cox Plate.
Other notable Hawke's Bay Cup winners since the 1960s include Key, Elkayel, Dalvui, Glengowan, Black Rod, Shamrock, Stylish Dude, Mr Brooker and Boundless.
Float driver retires after 54 years
When it comes to driving trucks, Hastings-based Colwyn Hercock has been there and done it all.
The now 73-year-old, who first got his heavy traffic licence at aged 18 in 1966, has retired after 54 years of steering horse floats and other trucks around the length and breadth of New Zealand.
Hercock decided to finally call it quits at the start of this year and Hawke's Bay Racing named a race in his honour at the last Hastings race meeting, on February 26. He had a special room on course that day dedicated to him, which was attended by a number of his close friends and colleagues.
Hercock was a successful jockey in his time, being the champion Hawke's Bay apprentice and later going on to become an accomplished jumps jockey.
He was apprenticed to the late Tony Burridge in Hastings and says the best horse he ever rode was the Burridge-trained Sir Barton.
I won 15 races on him and, another top horse I rode was Sir Robert, who won five in a row," Hercock recalled this week.
It was while he was still riding over fences, and weight was catching up with him, that Hercock decided to seek other employment and was taken on by Bill Reeves, who owned Majestic Horsefloats.
"Back in those days you had to be 18 to get a truck licence and I just scraped in. Bill helped me get the licence and I worked for him for many years after that."
In fact, Hercock remained driving under the umbrella of Majestic Horsefloats for 54 years, working as the owner-operator in Hawke's Bay from 1998 to 2015.
In his time he has not only carted thoroughbreds to and from race meetings and properties but also broodmares and stallions to and from studs and voluntarily ferried horses to and from Hawke's Bay Racing's Wall Road accommodation stables to the Hastings racecourse on race days.
He was also heavily involved in the Hawke's Bay pony club and carted teams away to national champs for 25 years, with every fourth year being a trip to the South Island.
Besides driving horse floats, Hercock also worked as a crane driver from Hawke's Bay Crane Hire and helped Mark Burridge when he had a bread run truck that made regular daily trips from Hastings to Auckland and return.
Bucky shows real potential
Hastings trainer John Bary reckons Bucky, who chalked up his second win when successful at Trentham last Saturday, is now reaching his full potential after having problems early in his career.
The 5-year-old Power gelding followed up a good third over 1200m at Hastings on February 26 with a dominant 2-3/4 length victory in a $22,500 Rating 65 race over 1000m at Trentham.
Jockey Lisa Allpress bounced the horse out quickly from the barrier and he disputed the pace until crossing the junction at the top of the home straight. Once asked to extend he showed a great turn of foot to quickly put a winning break on the field.
"He went a good race for third at Hastings, where he was beaten by a couple of smart horses, and so we decided to back him up," Bary said. "He was a fit horse and was well-ridden."
"It was a good win for the horse and great for his owners, who are an elderly couple from Auckland who have put a lot into the racing industry over many years."
Ron and Nuala Saunders bred Bucky and race him under their company banner of Moroal Bloodstock Limited.
The horse is well-bred as he is out of the former speedy racemare The Lady, who won two Listed stakes races over 1100m as a 2-year-old and was also placed at Group 3 level over 1400m.
Bucky was originally trained at Te Awamutu by Graeme Sanders and daughter Debbie Sweeney but Bary said he suffered badly from hoof problems as a young horse.
"He actually missed about a year of racing and Richard Otto did a lot of work on him and got his feet right again," Bary said.
"He has always been a bit of a nervous horse and thick winded but is starting to get his confidence now and seems a lot happier."
Bary said Bucky's Trentham win has taken him to 67 points so he now has to find a suitable Rating 72 race for the horse.
"There are no Rating 72 1000m races around so we will have to go back to 1200 somewhere and that might be at Awapuni on April 3," Bary added.
HB pair share in Ellerslie Group 1 spoils
Two Hawke's Bay people, Christel Jager and Michael Ormsby, shared in Group 1 celebrations at Ellerslie last Saturday.
Jager, from Hastings, owns a 2.5 per cent share in the boom 2-year-old colt Cool Aza Beel while Waipukurau's Ormsby is a shareholder in Avantage.
Cool Aza Beel stamped himself as the best 2-year-old in the country with a dominant winning performance in the Group 1 $200,000 Sistema Stakes (1200m).
The son of Savabeel jumped brilliantly from the barrier to take an early lead before jockey Opie Bosson was able to settle him back into a perfect trail.
He was clearly travelling better than anything else when he ranged up outside the leaders on the point of the home turn and really let down strongly when Bosson asked him to extend.
At the line Cool Aza Beel was a length clear of Vernazza, with a further 2-1/2 lengths back to third-placed Kelly Renee.
Jager was given the special privilege of helping to lead the horse back to the winner's stall.
The colt now has a record of four wins, a second and a fourth from only six starts and has now amassed more than $707,000 in stakemoney, a tremendous return on the $150,000 Te Akau principal David Ellis outlayed for him as a yearling.
Cool Aza Beel is now expected to head to the Group 1 $225,000 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) at Awapuni on March 28.
He is trained at Matamata by Jamie Richards, who also produced Avantage to chalk up her third Group 1 victory in the $200,000 Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2000m).
The Fastnet Rock mare was following on from her success at the elite level in last month's Haunui Farm Weight-for-age Classic (1600m) at Otaki and easily coped with the extra 400m, finishing the race off strongly for a 1-1/4 length win over True Enough, with a head back to third placed Supera.
Avantage now boasts a record of 10 wins, three seconds and a third from 17 starts and her stake earnings now total more than $1.4 million. She was a $210,000 purchase by Te Akau principal David Ellis at the 2017 Karaka yearling sales.
She will now be freshened slightly and brought back to 1600m in the Group 1 $200,000 NZ Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes (1600m) at Te Aroha on April 4.
Michael Ormsby has shares in several Te Akau syndicates and is also a part-owner in Need I Say More, who was a last start winner of the Group 3 Waikato Stud Slipper (1200m) at Matamata on February 22. The Australian-bred gelding defeated stablemate Cool Aza Beel in that race and the two horses are expected to clash again in the Group 1 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes at Awapuni tomorrow fortnight.