Can I Get An Amen and jockey Danielle Johnson have a decisive winning margin over their rivals in Rotorua on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied
Hastings-trained Can I Get An Amen may have earned a start in the Group 1 $250,000 JR & N Berkett Telegraph Sprint (1200m) at Trentham on January 15 after her dominant victory in a Rating 74 race over 1400m at Rotorua on Tuesday.
The mare is prepared by the training partnership of Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen who have put in a nomination for the Telegraph, a race they have won twice in the past with Irish Fling in 2014 and Adventador in 2016.
Can I Get An Amen was recording just her third win but she has also chalked up five seconds and three thirds from her 17 starts and has been unlucky on a number of occasions.
She now has a rating of 77 points which is not a lot but, considering today's Group 1 Sistema Railway Sprint (1200m) at Ellerslie drew only nine horses, there is a good chance this rating will be enough to make the field for the Trentham feature.
The 5-year-old mare is by Hallowed Crown out of the Sudurka mare Brianna, who herself finished an unlucky sixth in the 2008 running of the Telegraph Sprint.
Can I Get An Amen was ridden to victory on Tuesday by Danielle Johnson, who was also aboard in the mare's last success, in a Rating 65 race over 1400m at Hastings in October 2020.
Tuesday's Rotorua race was reduced to only five runners after second favourite Miss Aotearoa was late scratched at the barrier when a muscle spasm caused her to be three out of five lame.
Can I Get An Amen ended up starting an odds-on favourite and Johnson settled her mount fourth in the early stages before quickly improving to challenge on the turn. The mare accelerated clear of her rivals in just a few strides and maintained a strong run to the line to win by 1-1/2 lengths.
Can I Get An Amen was bred by Cambridge-based Tony Rider, who races her with some close friends. Coincidentally, Rider was also the breeder and owner of both Irish Fling and Adventador.
Rider is still breeding from Brianna, who has also left the stakes placed Moana and a yearling colt by Australian sire Shooting To Win.
Matamata trainer Jamie Richards presently has the top three in order of entry in the $1m Karaka Million Three-year-old Classic (1600m) at Ellerslie on January 22 with On The Bubbles the headline act following his bold winning performance on the course on Boxing Day.
The Brazen Beau gelding is now a $2.80 favourite with the TAB for the feature and has shot up to second in order of entry, just behind stablemate Noverre and in front of another Richards-trained runner in Sneaky Shark.
The Karaka Million races are restricted to graduates from the Karaka yearling sales with order of entry governed by the amount of stakemoney each horse has won.
Today's Auckland meeting at Ellerslie could see some movement in the order of entry, with a number of prospects contesting the Group 2 $120,000 Skycity Auckland Guineas (1600m).
Purchased for $90,000 by David Ellis at the 2020 Karaka yearling sales, On The Bubbles has now won $796,950.
He played a starring role last season with his victories in the $1million Karaka Million Two-year-old (1200m) and the Group 1 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) before going out for a winter spell.
The Australian-bred gelding then missed the spring due to an entrapped epiglottis, and he was a beaten favourite when he resumed with a second placing at Te Rapa earlier this month.
But it was a different story back at Ellerslie last Sunday as he fought off the challenge of the previously unbeaten Pareanui Bay to win the Listed $80,000 Uncle Remus Stakes (1400m), aided by a superb ride from top jockey Opie Bosson.
He now boasts a record of five wins and three seconds from only eight starts and will get an opportunity to join stablemate Probabeel as the only horses to have completed the Karaka Million Two-year-old and Karaka Million Three-year-old Classic double.
"On that run, you'd think he would be hard to beat in the Karaka Million," David Ellis said. "I'm so happy for all the owners, including our children, who have shares in the horse. It's a great thrill and such an excitable ownership group."
Included among the owners are a young Hawke's Bay stock agent and the son of well-known Hawke's Bay rugby and cricket commentator Ian Smith.
Sam Wright, who works for the Hastings branch of PGG Wrightson, is part of six family members and friends who own a 10 per cent share in the 3-year-old while Hawke's Bay-born Jarrod Smith, a former All Whites footballer player who now lives in Auckland, also owns a 5e per cent share.
They are part of the 20 members that make up the Te Akau Splash Of Dom Racing Partnership that race the horse.
For both Wright and Smith it is their first venture into racehorse ownership and they are now living the dream.
Sam Wright worked for a time as a livestock agent for Te Akau and thus struck up a relationship with David Ellis. He has had a lifelong interest in racing and enjoys the odd punt. He and his father Dave, a Feilding-based stock agent, decided to take up a share in On The Bubbles.
Jarrod Smith has been a keen punter for many years but admits there is nothing like the thrill of owning a winner, especially a horse as good as On The Bubbles.
He and his fiancée Rebekha got involved through a friend who is related to Karen Fenton-Ellis, wife of David Ellis.
Jarrod Smith played 15 games for the New Zealand All Whites during the late 2000s and also played major league soccer in Canada and the United States. He has been living in Auckland for the past six years and has been on course to see On The Bubbles contest most of his eight races.
Both Richards and Ellis admitted to a sense of relief when On The Bubbles returned to his best at Ellerslie on Boxing Day.
"It's been publicly documented that he had some breathing issues and underwent an operation, but Opie (Bosson) said to me afterwards that he breathed really well. He's comfortable here and loves the course," Ellis said.
On The Bubbles was one of four winning mounts for Bosson at Ellerslie on Boxing Day as he also took out the Group 2 $120,000 Eight Carat Classic (1600m) aboard Belle En Rouge, the $80,000 Hallmark Stud Handicap (1200m) with Festivity and the $60,000 Rating 74 race over 1200m on Bonny Lass.
Bosson was seen at his excellent best aboard On The Bubbles.
Settled on the back of the early speed, Bosson attacked on the home corner as he shot his mount to the front soon after straightening and then cuddled him up as he waited for the inevitable challenge from Pareanui Bay.
Bosson asked for the supreme effort at the 200m as the pair set down to fight out the finish with On The Bubbles holding a half-length margin at the line.
"He had the improvement under his belt from last time and I was quietly confident," Bosson said.
"I heard them coming and so did he, so he put his head out and dug in some more.
"It just shows how good he is."
Trelawney Stud's colours were prominent in black type races at Ellerslie on Boxing Day with three placings, but two of them came at a physical cost.
High-class mare Two Illicit didn't escape unscathed after her luckless run for third in the Group 1 Zabeel Classic (2000m) while the curtain has come down on gifted sprinter Vamos Bebe's career after she bled again when runner-up to stablemate Festivity in the Listed Hallmark Stud Handicap (1200m).
Trelawney's other stakes representative was Pareanui Bay, who lost his unbeaten record when second in the Listed Uncle Remus Stakes (1400m) but there was honour in defeat as he endured an interrupted run.
Prepared by the training partnership of Roger James and Robert Wellwood, the Trelawney homebred Two Illicit ran into more than her share of trouble in the running before rider Vinnie Colgan got her into clear air and the Jimmy Choux mare finished off generously for second behind the front running Tiptronic.
Two Illicit was found to have been galloped on during the race and had lost a shoe but, fortunately, her injuries are not too severe.
In the aftermath, her jockey Vinnie Colgan admitted a charge of careless riding in his attempts to get her clear running and was suspended up to and including January 11 and fined $500.
The Jamie Richards-trained Vamos Bebe had suffered her first bleeding attack 12 months ago when she won the Hallmark Stud Handicap, only to be subsequently disqualified following an irregular post-race swab.
"Unfortunately she bled again so she has been retired and it is probably why she buckled in the last little bit," Trelawney Stud proprietor Brent Taylor said.
Vamos Bebe won three of her 10 starts and also recorded five minor placings.