Racing: Plenty of Hawke's Bay interest in Riccarton features

Chuck A Luck (inside) finishing second behind Sherwood Forest in last Saturday's War Decree Stakes (1600m) at Riccarton. Photo / Supplied

Hawke's Bay looks likely to be well represented in the two 3-year-old features at this month's New Zealand Cup meeting at Riccarton.

The John Bary-trained Callsign Mav is currently equal third favourite at $10 on the fixed-odds market for the Group 1 $500,000 Al Basti Equiworld New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) on the first day of the three-day carnival, on November 9, while the Hawke's Bay bred and part-owned Chuck A Luck ($41) is also a likely starter in the race.

Meanwhile the Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen trained Riva Capri is being prepared for the Group 1 $300,000 Gavelhouse New Zealand 1000 Guineas a week later and is currently rated a $26 chance for that 1600m event while she could be joined by stablemate Can I Get An Amen, who is presently a $101 outsider.

Callsign Mav is a lightly raced 3-year-old gelding by Atlante and has recorded two wins and a second from only four starts. He won on debut over 800m at Hastings in July before another victory over 1400m at Hastings on September 21 and his last start second was behind Catalyst in the Group 2 Hawke's Bay Guineas (1400m) on October 5.

Callsign Mav, owned by Bary in partnership with a group of Australians, is on the third line of betting along with last Sunday's impressive Te Rapa winner Harlech. Catalyst, winner of his last four starts, is the raging hot favourite at $1.15 with last Saturday's Riccarton winner Sherwood Forest now second favourite at $8.00.

Chuck A Luck, who finished second behind Sherwood Forest in last Saturday's Group 3 War Decree Stakes (1600m), was bred by the Hawke's Bay-based group of Ali Baldwin, Paul Beachen and Chris and Rae Walker along with Queensland couple Keith and Aine Rice.

They sold the horse for $25,000 at the 2018 Karaka yearling sales but are now part of the Chuck A Luck Syndicate that races him from the Riccarton stable of Michael and Matthew Pitman. Other Hawke's Bay members are Phil King, David Giblin, Bruce Hooper-Smith and Cliff and Julia Paul.

Chuck A Luck has now had seven starts for a win, two seconds and a third and has never finished further back than fifth.

He is 3-year-old gelding by Niagara and the third foal produced by the Catbird mare Boomchuckalucka. The first foal was Charlie Zulu, by Zed, who was a maiden winner over 1200m at Waipukurau in March for the Hastings training partnership of Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen and has now been transferred to the South Island stable of John Blackadder.

The second foal is Thunder Bay, a 4-year-old full-sister to Chuck A Luck who was a winner over 1400m at Ashburton earlier this year and finished second in the Listed Welcome Stakes (1000m) at Riccarton as a 2-year-old. She could also be racing over the New Zealand Cup carnival.

Boomchuckaluka died last year but the syndicate now has a Contributer yearling filly out of the mare coming on.

Riva Capri is a daughter of Atlante who has had four starts for a win, a second and a fourth. She has not raced since finishing fourth in the Group 2 Hawke's Bay Guineas (1400m) on October 5 but has been kept right up to the mark in trackwork and finished a close third in a 1200m jumpout at Woodville last Friday.

Riva Capri had not raced for seven weeks when she took out the Listed O'Learys Stakes (1200m) at Whanganui on September 7 and then had no luck in the running when unplaced in the Group 3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) at Hastings on September 21. She then took on the colts and geldings in the Hawke's Bay Guineas and was not disgraced when finishing behind Catalyst, Callsign Mav and Aotea Lad.

Co-trainer Guy Lowry said this week the filly, who is raced by prominent Wellington owner Lib Patenga, has trained on very well and has benefited a lot from last Friday's jumpout.

"The track at Woodville was a heavy-11 and, although she wasn't pressured, it was like a race for her in that sort of ground," he said.

"She can always have a gallop between races at the Hawke's Bay meeting on Sunday week if we think she needs another strong hit out."

Can I Get An Amen is a 3-year-old filly by Hallowed Crown out of the stakes winning mare Brianna and has had one start for a close second in a 1000m maiden at Tauherenikau on October 10.

The filly is already in the South Island and will line up in a 1400m maiden race at Motukarara on Sunday, where she has drawn wide at barrier 15 and will be ridden by Michael McNab.

"If she wins that race on Sunday then she will run in the Thousand Guineas," Lowry added.

Vale Sheryl McGlade

The death last Friday of former Hawke's Bay-based Sheryl McGlade saw the passing of a highly accomplished horsewoman and one of jumps racing's strongest advocates.

McGlade died in Waikato Hospital after battling deteriorating health for a few months. She was well-known and respected, not only in racing circles, but also the equestrian front, in which she first made her indelible mark with horses.

On the racing front, she first became prominent when public training from Tauherenikau under the surname of Douglas with her biggest highlight coming in the 1996-97 season when she produced Just Jojo to win the Grand National Steeplechase at Riccarton and Clem to take the Great Northern Hurdles at Ellerslie.

She part-owned Just Jojo, a daughter of Starjo, and she became the only mare to win the Grand National Steeplechase in the last 80 years, while Clem, whom she co-bred and part-owned, also included the 1998 Eric Riddiford Steeplechase at Trentham among his nine wins and was runner-up in the 1998 Grand National Steeplechase and Pakuranga Hunt Cup.

McGlade shifted to Cambridge in 1999 and married trainer Roger McGlade and the pair enjoyed several highlights with Clem's brother, Bart, who won the 2005 McGregor Grant Steeplechase and Pakuranga Hunt Cup and was third in the 2005 Great Northern Steeplechase.

The McGlades also celebrated consecutive Group 1 Avondale Cup wins with Regal Krona and in the 2002-03 season they recorded 15 wins, her biggest seasonal tally as a trainer.

McGlade also got special pleasure from breeding, racing and co-training Karlos. Winner of the 2011 Waikato Hurdles, Karlos was runner-up to Hypnotize in the 2010 Great Northern Steeplechase and the following season he was second in the Koral Steeplechase and third in Grand National Steeplechase.

Karlos went on to become the last winner trained by McGlade when he won the 2013 Koral Steeplechase. He backed up at Riccarton to finish second in the Grand National Steeplechase and in his final race, two starts later, he was third in the Great Northern Steeplechase.

McGlade's last runner as a trainer was Moni Nui in 2016. Being hospitalised prevented her from being at Te Aroha last month for one of her favourite race days, National Jumps Day, though she later watched the races on the iPad.

Since being granted a trainers' licence in 1988-89, McGlade won 153 races, including 10 black-type events, and came so close to a very special milestone.

"She trained 99 wins over fences and it's just a shame she didn't get the 100," her husband Roger said.

The love of jumps racing began during her childhood days when McGlade (nee Trumper) grew up in Hastings.

She did the pony club scene on borrowed mounts and later excelled at showjumping, making two New Zealand teams to compete in Australia. She was also in the training squad preparing for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, but eventually New Zealand was not represented in equestrian.

Successful at the New Zealand Horse of the Year Show and other major shows, she later ran the National Equestrian Centre in Taupō and was assistant instructor for the New Zealand Horse Society before spending a year at Isola in South Auckland.

Bosson contemplates Aussie move

The plaudits Opie Bosson earned for his ride on Te Akau Shark at Moonee Valley last Saturday has the champion New Zealand jockey seriously considering a winter stint riding in Australia.

Last season's New Zealand Jockey of the Year, Bosson guided Te Akau Shark to finish third in the Group 1 Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m).

"The plan was to go back from the wide draw and, to be fair, I was hoping to get on the back of something to be able to go wider across the top," Bosson said.

"I'd walked the track the day before with Brent Thomson (former champion jockey) and he said you can't be wide going into the first two bends and expect to win a Cox Plate. You have to get in behind something. He also said to try and get out and going before the turn.

"He (Te Akau Shark) hit a flat spot across the top when we were right behind the Japanese mare (the winner Lys Gracieux) and he took another 50m to get going again. At that stage Ben Melham (on 11th placed Homesman) was on my outside and wasn't about to let me out.

"They all peeled four and five wide and off the fence and that's when I decided to stick to the rails. If I had have tried to go out wider we'd probably have ended up where Kings Will Dream did (sixth).

"I just wish he'd drawn a good barrier. We'd have been able to be three or four lengths closer in the running."

Bosson was full of praise for Te Akau Shark and can't wait to be back riding him with the likely target now being the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) in Sydney during autumn.

Bosson has always made the most of his hit-and-run raids on Australian carnivals, right back to landing his first Australian Group One win aboard Grand Archway in the 1998 Group 1 VRC Oaks at Flemington as an 18-year-old.

Since then he has ridden a further four Group One winners in Australia, Mongolian Khan in the 2015 ATC Derby (2400m) and Caulfield Cup (2400m), Turn Me Loose in the 2016 Futurity Stakes (1400m) and Gingernuts in the 2017 Rosehill Guineas (2000m).

He has won a host of other black-type Australian features and most times he has ventured across the Tasman he has been approached by Australian trainers to shift from New Zealand to try his luck there.

"It first happened when I won on Grand Archway, but I was too young and too immature then. I was better off coming back to New Zealand," Bosson said.

"Since then I've had offers from quite a few trainers to shift over there, but the timing hasn't been right. Besides I love my lifestyle in New Zealand. That's the main reason I've stayed here.

"Now it's something I would really look at, with the way New Zealand racing is going, maybe for a few months during winter.

"I'm contracted to Te Akau Racing (Stables) and that comes first, but it's a quieter time for them in the winter months. I'd look at staying on in Sydney after the autumn carnival if that works out and Dave (Ellis, Te Akau Principal) is happy with it.

"I'm determined to get out of here next winter and do something. Winter is so depressing and it's hard to keep my weight down. There's nothing to look forward to over here in winter."

Bosson has always had a constant battle with his weight. "I have to sweat hard to ride 56kg," he said. "It's always a worry, but Emily (wife) makes sure we eat healthy and that helps."

At 39, Bosson realises he doesn't have many more years in the saddle.

"Ideally I've got another six years riding, but that depends on my body," he said.