Racing: Import gelding toast of classic

Craig Grylls prepares to nudge Willie Cazals (4) just past Humidor and Mark Du Plessis to win the Livamol Classic in Hastings as Hasselhoof (Matthew Cameron) comes in third. PHOTO/Warren Buckland

Some would have bracketed Willie Cazals as a horse that had done his dash and is now going through the motions of becoming a journeyman in New Zealand.

But not Matamata co-trainers Lance O'Sullivan and Andrew Scott who watched their 9-year-old grey import upset pundits' favourite, Rasa Lila, as he snuck in to win the $250,000 group one Livamol Classic in Hastings today.

The Ireland-bred Willie Cazals, who raced in Italy before leaving his hoof prints through Hong Kong racecourses on his way to New Zealand as a spent force, was 0.2 lengths over the finish line before Johno Benner's Humidor.

Benner, who positioned himself where the media is perched for the money shot on the finish line, would also have been pleased with his new graduate who has stepped up to take his mark among the big boys in the 2040m weight-for-age feature race of the final leg of the Bostock New Zealand Spring Racing Carnival in Hastings.

It had just started to drizzle on a 19C overcast day and you somehow get the feeling the 28-year-old Otaki trainer, who works a dozen horses in a stable with partner Hollie Wynard, would have preferred a bit more wet on the slow 8 track to give his 4-year-old bay gelding and jockey Mark du Plessis a bias.

However, the day belonged to jockey Craig Grylls and the horse under the tutelage of O'Sullivan/Scott who returned from Hong Kong with "little or no expectations".

"It's a great thrill," retired jockey great O'Sullivan said.

"To get him back and won a group one is just a wonderful thrill," he said.

It was also a magical moment for Grylls whose father, retired Gary Grylls, won the classic on Love Dance in 1996.

Group 2 Sacred Falls HB Guineas-winning Ruakaka co-trainers Donna Logan and Chris Gibbs were back in the Birdcage when their 5-year-old brown gelding, Hasselhoof (Matthew Cameron), got third place a length behind Humidor in the classic.

Tauranga trainer Stuart Manning's El Pescado (Cameron Lammas) came in next 2.3 lengths behind Hasselhoof while Maungatautari husband/wife co-trainers Steven Ramsay and Julia Ritchie had to settle for fifth place with Rasa Lila (Leith Innes), a further 2.7 lengths adrift.