Waipukurau owner-trainer Simon Wilson. Photo / Supplied
Waipukurau thoroughbred trainer Simon Wilson is fast building an impressive strike-rate of winners to runners.
The talented horseman has had 18 starters this season for four wins and three seconds, giving him a winning strike-rate of 4.5.
Only two trainers in the top 20 on the national premiership boast a better strike-rate, those being Robbie Patterson (3.97) and Lance Noble (4.35).
Given that Patterson has a large team of horses including several black-type performers and Noble is private trainer for Brendan and Jo Lindsay’s powerful Cambridge Stud, the fact that Wilson is just behind them is an outstanding achievement.
Wilson brought up his fourth win for the season when Scutar scored a game victory in a $30,000 Rating 75 race over 2200m at Trentham last Saturday.
The O’Reilly seven-year-old had to carry topweight of 59kg and showed great fighting qualities to notch up his fourth win from 23 starts.
Jockey Lisa Allpress bounced the horse out well from the barrier and took up a trailing position behind the clear pacemaker Ciambella in the early running before moving forward to challenge for the lead coming to the home turn.
Scutar took over once into the straight and, although Ciambella fought back, Allpress was able to extract a bit more out of her mount in the final stages to get a half-neck decision.
Scutar is one of only two horses Wilson is racing at the moment with the other being Vidiano, who was a last start winner over 2040m at Wanganui on February 23.
That horse heads to this Saturday’s Wellington premier meeting at Trentham where she will contest the $50,000 Rating 65 race over 2200m.
Meanwhile Scutar will now be aimed at the $25,000 Masterton Cup, a Rating 75 race over 2050m at Tauherenikau on Sunday, March 26.
“He’s a horse that likes a good track so hopefully the rain holds off and we can get another reasonably firm track for him there,” Wilson said this week.
Wilson said this week he has another two horses nearly ready to grace the racetrack.
One of those is Mermaid, a three-year-old filly by Derryn who scored an impressive maiden win over 1200m on a heavy track at Waverley in October last year but did a lot wrong, beginning awkwardly and then wanting to hang out during in the running and running very wide in the home straight.
Wilson decided to immediately put the horse out for a spell and said a lot of work has gone into getting the horse more tractable.
“We’ve got a girl called Kendell that works for us and she gets on really well with the horse and has got her going really well,” Wilson said.
Mermaid contested a 1000m heat at the Hastings jumpouts on Tuesday of last week and recorded an impressive win. She is now likely to have a barrier trial at Otaki next week.
Wilson said he also has three unraced two-year-olds on his property which he is bringing along slowly and looking to race later in the season.
As an owner-trainer Wilson must have at least a 50 per cent racing share in any horse he prepares, with the other 50 per cent shareholding in Scutar owned by several prominent Wellington racing identities, including John Rattray and Alister Lawrence.
Scutar was one of two wins for jockey Lisa Allpress on the seven race card at Trentham last Saturday in what was her last day of race-riding for up to six months.
Deserved win by Belcamina
Hastings-trained Belcamina broke through for a deserved maiden success at the Taupo meeting on Wednesday of last week.
The four-year-old mare was having her fourth start this campaign and the win followed an unlucky seventh over 1200m at Hastings on New Year’s Eve, a fast finishing second over 1600m at Tauherenikau at the beginning of last month and a close second over 1600m at Otaki on February 25.
Belcamina is trained by Guy Lowry and is certainly bred to win races. She is by champion New Zealand sire Savabeel out of the dual Group 3 winner Eleonora, who is a grand-daughter of Ethereal, winner of the 2001 Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double.
Eleonora had 11 starts for three wins and six minor placings. She won both the Group 3 Ethereal Stakes (2000m) at Caulfield and the Group 3 Sunline Vase (2100m) at Ellerslie and also finished third in the Group 1 VRC Oaks (2500m).
Belcamina is the first foal out of Eleonora to race but the mare has also left the highly promising two-year-old Ethereal Star, who recorded a win and two seconds from her first three starts before an unlucky fifth in last Saturday’s Group 1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) at Pukekohe, where she was hampered for most of the race by a slipped saddle.
Lowry said this week that Belcamina has now been turned out for a lengthy spell and won’t be seen on the racetrack again until next spring.
“She’s a tough little mare but she likes good tracks and, with not a lot of suitable races around for her at the moment, we’ve decided to give her a good spell.
“I like her and I’m sure she will come back a stronger horse next season.”
HB cyclone fund appeal wrap-up
Out of adversity came heart-warming goodwill, with strong support from New Zealand’s thoroughbred racing industry to assist the Hawke’s Bay equine community directly impacted by the destruction from Cyclone Gabrielle.
A relief fund set up by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, Dunstan Horsefeeds and the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Association has topped $100,000 and, after some provision for emergency veterinary supplies, the balance of $85,000 will go towards feed for the industry to be distributed by Dunstan Horsefeeds. This is in addition to the 250 bags of feed already donated by Dunstan.
Two other funds that have made significant donations are from Roger James, who has assisted with day-to-day living essentials for those who suffered significant loss, while Te Akau Racing launched an appeal to raise funds for the Red Cross to support their invaluable work in the community.
Throughout the ordeal, Hawke’s Bay Racing and the Waipukurau Jockey Club opened their doors to the community with food, clothing and shelter for displaced and affected families as well as acting as a vital distribution hub for medical, food, and support organisations and services.
“NZTR would like to thank all those who made donations across the multiple racing industry appeals,” said CEO Bruce Sharrock.
“A special mention must go to Hawke’s Bay Racing, including Aaron Hamilton and staff, as well as the Waipukurau Jockey Club, in particular Kirsty Lawrence.
“These members of the impacted region need to be recognised for the work they have done, and will continue to do, in managing the storage of hay, baleage and distribution of feed to those directly affected.
“We know this is just the start, and for many it is a massive mountain to climb to get back to some degree of normality.
“In respect of this, we now turn our attention to the Power Farming Hawke’s Bay Cup Day on April 15.
“The Club is organising a major event for not just racegoers, but the whole Hawke’s Bay community at large. This will be an occasion to again show our support for the Hawke’s Bay public and our colleagues in the racing and equine industry in the Bay,” Sharrock said.
Surgery puts Allpress out for six months
Leading woman jockey Lisa Allpress remains optimistic of reaching 2000 career wins despite being sidelined for at least the next six months due to a shoulder injury.
Allpress became emotional after winning a Rating 65 race over 1600m at Trentham last Saturday aboard Always More, a horse trained by her former boss Kevin Gray, in what will be her last race-ride for a long time.
She underwent surgery on her left shoulder at Wanganui Hospital on Thursday.
The injury stems from a bad fall Allpress had in a jumpout five years ago, when she badly damaged both shoulders.
Surgery soon after the fall helped fix her right shoulder but the left one is still proving bothersome.
“I’ve had three cortisone injections over the last two years. I went back hoping that they’d give me another injection in February as it obviously got quite sore over the Christmas-New Year period and it was starting to affect my strength.
“But the surgeon said no. I needed surgery and no riding for six months.”
The 47-year-old realises it will be a long process to get back to race riding and that there is even a chance she may not be able to. But she is determined to do so.
“The whole thing is building back toward riding again, and it’s hard work. It’s not like I’m in my early twenties. I’m getting older and it’s harder to come back from injury. It will potentially be my biggest test to come back after this.”
Allpress was sitting in fourth place on this season’s jockeys’ premiership with 60 victories. She now has 1855 career wins in New Zealand and remains determined to reach 2000.
“It has been a goal for quite some time, which is the reason I’ve been carrying on with this shoulder for as long as I have. I thought once I got to the 2000 that would be me,” she said.
Captions:
1: Jockey Lisa Allpress gets Scutar to stretch his neck out and score a narrow win over Ciambella in the $30,000 Rating 75 race over 2200m at Trentham last Saturday.
2: Waipukurau owner-trainer Simon Wilson.
'Sure enough, here is this beautiful little bird hunkering down in a hole.'