Hastings apprentice Lily Sutherland brings Make Time back at the head of the field following their success at Awapuni last Saturday. Photo / Supplied
Hastings apprentice Lily Sutherland is making a rapid rise in the national jockeys ranks after kicking home another two winners at last Saturday's Marton Jockey Club meeting at Awapuni.
The brace of wins took the talented 18-year-old's career winning tally to 13, with nine of those victories coming since the start of this season on August 1.
She is now in the top 10 on the national jockeys' premiership and among the top four apprentices in the country.
Sutherland, who is apprenticed to her long-time mentor Vicki Wilson, only began race-riding at the beginning of this year and chalked up her first win aboard the Levin Myers-trained Shockproof at Hawera in April.
The astute Myers has been one of Sutherland's biggest supporters so it was fitting that one of her two winners at Awapuni last Saturday was aboard a horse from his stable.
That horse was Yolo, who recorded back-to-back victories with a runaway 4-1/2-length win in the rating 75 race over 2100 metres.
The little Zed mare started a $3.50 favourite and was aided by a no-panic ride from Sutherland, who let her settle near the tail of the eight-horse field in the early running before starting to improve her position inside the last 600m.
Yolo quickly went up to challenge the leaders rounding the home bend and raced clear over the final stages under just a hands-and-heels ride from Sutherland to record her third success from 23 starts.
Sutherland had also ridden Yolo to win at her previous start, in a rating 65 race over 2040m at Wanganui, and a sizeable number of her wins have come from the Myers stable.
She is also building up a good association with Awapuni trainer Lisa Latta, and her other win last Saturday came aboard the Latta-trained Make Time in a rating 75 race over 1400m.
Sutherland has ridden Make Time in his last six starts for two wins, two seconds, a third and a fifth.
The Makfi gelding drew the extreme outside and was caught three wide for the entire race, but Sutherland kept the horse balanced. She urged him forward to challenge the leaders, wide out, on the home turn and then only had to give her mount a couple of hits with the whip in the final stages as he raced clear to win by 2-1/2 lengths.
Females make up 50 per cent of the top 20 jockeys in this season's premiership, headed by Lisa Allpress, who is second behind Opie Bosson.
Other female apprentices who have made a rapid rise up the ranks in recent weeks are Kelsey Hannan and Tayla Mitchell, both of whom are also in the top 20.
Bary chasing third success in Hawke's Bay feature
Hastings trainer John Bary has won the Group 1 race on the second day of the Hawke's Bay spring carnival twice before, and is confident he has the firepower to make it three at today's Hastings meeting.
Today will mark the first running of the Group 1 $300,000 Arrowfield Stud Plate, a race formerly known as the Windsor Park Plate.
Bary prepared Callsign Mav to win the 1600m feature last year and also took it out with Jimmy Choux in 2011.
This year Bary will saddle up Spring Tide, a relative newcomer to his stable who finished eighth in this race last year, but has been runner-up in the last two editions of the Group 1 Tarzino Trophy, the feature race on the first day of the Hawke's Bay spring carnival.
Formerly trained at Foxton by Chrissy Bambry, Spring Tide had his first start for Bary when a game second behind Dark Destroyer in the Tarzino Trophy (1400m) at Hastings three weeks ago.
Spring Tide has yet to win beyond 1400m, but Bary is confident the Darci Brahma six-year-old will run the distance out strongly.
"Last year he may have been coming to the end of it, but I didn't have him then so I can't really comment," Bary said this week.
"But in my experience this year, I'm very comfortable he's going to get a mile. He is quirky, but provided he loads and everything goes well there, he's a live chance when the gates open."
Spring Tide was withdrawn at the barrier when he refused to load in a Taupo trial last month, but then contested a 1400m trial on the Cambridge synthetic track on August 30 and won by five lengths.
Bary says he has adopted a different strategy with Spring Tide compared with his other Group 1 performers.
"Nowhere near have I galloped him the same way I have with my other Group 1 horses. I've just let him do it on his own," he said.
Spring Tide was one of a truckload of horses Bary brought into the Hastings track for Tuesday's trackwork session, and the horse galloped strongly over 1200m in company with stablemate Blissful Belle, clocking 36.2s for the last 600m.
"His gallop was very good and the rain certainly doesn't disadvantage him as much as a couple of the better ones," Bary added.
Bary also has a leading chance in today's Group 2 $140,000 AHD Hawke's Bay Guineas (1400m), with his exciting three-year-old filly Best Seller, winner of the Group 3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) at Hastings three weeks ago.
Best Seller galloped in company with race rival Te Awa Bay at Tuesday's Hastings trackwork session and they were timed to sprint home the last 600m in an excellent 35.1s, with Bary saying it was the best work she has ever done.
Best Seller produced some good performances last season, most notably finishing second behind champion two-year-old Maven Belle in the Group 2 Matamata Breeders' Stakes (1200m).
She has come back this season a lot stronger filly, winning fresh up over 1100m at Taupo on August 24 before her dominant 1-3/4-length victory over Sans Doute in the Gold Trail Stakes.
In both wins, Best Seller was ridden off the pace and produced a whirlwind finish, and Bary said similar tactics will be adopted again in today's race.
He said the ultimate aim is to have Best Seller ready for the Group 1 $400,000 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton on November 12.
Best Seller is one of four Hastings-trained three-year-olds entered for today's Hawke's Bay Guineas. The others are stablemate Te Awa Bay, the Patrick Campbell-trained Duncan Creek and New Orleans Jazz, from the Dean Howard stable.
Marsh happy with his Group 1 entrants
In-form Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh has multiple runners at today's second day of the Colliers Hawke's Bay Spring Carnival, including a dual assault on the feature event.
Marsh will be represented in the Group 1 Arrowfield Stud Plate (1600m) by Vername and Masetto, while Andalus will be his stable runner in the Group 2 AHD Hawke's Bay Guineas (1400m) and he has six others scattered among the undercard races.
Marsh is pleased with the way his Group 1 performer Vername is coming up in a fresh campaign. The horse followed up a win in an 1100m Taupo trial in early August with a run over 1500m at Te Rapa on September 4, where he was inconvenienced by a wide barrier.
Vername is a noted on-pace runner and was forced to go back from the outside draw at Te Rapa and was never in the hunt. But Marsh says the seven-year-old has improved a lot since that run.
The son of O'Reilly was a three-time Group 1 runner-up last season, in the Zabeel Classic (2000m), Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) and the New Zealand Stakes (2000m).
Stablemate Masetto finished third in that same Te Rapa race Vername contested on September 4 when also kicking off a new campaign, and Marsh was thrilled with the run.
"He was terrific and has also done well with that run under his belt," Marsh said.
Masetto proved his worth at the top level when third in last season's Group 1 Tarzino Trophy (1400m) on the Hastings track, and has also showed his versatility with a brace of open middle-distance handicap wins to his credit.
Providing they perform well today, both Vername and Masetto are likely to go on to the Group 1 $3300,000 Livamol Classic (2040m) on the last day of the Hawke's Bay spring carnival, on October 15.
Andalus is still a maiden and faces a tough assignment in today's Hawke's Bay Guineas, but the Almanzor colt was twice group placed last season and has recorded a fifth and a fourth in two starts this season.
"He wants more ground and I thought the writing was on the wall at his last start over 1400 at Ruakaka when he ran fourth," Marsh said.
"I want to get him down to Riccarton for the 2000 Guineas. The mile there on a big track will really suit him."
Verry Elleegant may miss out on Arc start
New Zealand-bred 11-time Group 1 winner Verry Elleegant is in danger of not making the 20-strong Group 1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (2400m) in France tomorrow.
A total of 27 horses remained in contention for the prestigious event after the first forfeit stage elapsed on Monday and, if Verry Elleegant's connections paid the €120,000 ($205,000) late entry fee, that number would increase to 28.
France racing officials confirmed that, given the demand for an Arc berth, the field limit may be increased.
Australian-based jockey Mark Zahra is set to reunite with Verry Elleegant if she makes the field, after riding her to victory in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) and Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) two years ago.