Swayzee and regular driver Cameron Hart on the way to one of his many big race wins in Australia. Two Hawke’s Bay men, Lester Drake and Neville Jackson, own a share in the 7-year-old gelding.
John Jenkins is a longtime racing journalist based in Hawke’s Bay.
OPINION
Hawke’s Bay racehorse owners Lester Drake and Neville Jackson had another windfall when the star pacer they share in the ownership of, Swayzee, won last Sunday night’s Group 3 Renshaw Cup on the Penrith track in Australia.
Although the race was only worth A$60,000 ($65,500), Swayzee picked up another A$500,000 bonus for his connections in being the top performer in the five-race New South Wales Carnival of Cups.
Swayzee contested all five races in the series and was an emphatic winner of the bonus, recording four wins and a close second.
Drake and Jackson share the ownership with the horse’s Queensland trainer Jason Grimson and prominent Australian racehorse owner Mick Boots.
The Australian-bred son of Rock N Roll Heaven was originally purchased by New Zealand trainer Tim Butt as a young horse, who invited Drake and Jackson to take a share.
Butt trained Swayzee for his first 10 wins before a major share in the horse was sold to Mick Boots and he was transferred to Grimson’s stable.
Swayzee now has a record of 30 wins and 14 minor placings and has won stake money in excess of A$2 million.
“He’s a great horse and it was a huge thrill to see him get the bonus,” Drake said this week.
“He’s a powerhouse and seems to take everything in his stride.
“He just keeps producing and it has been a great ride for Neville and I.”
Swayzee drew the second line in last Sunday’s 2525m Renshaw Cup but began like a rocket and Australian driver Cameron Hart had no hesitation in improving his position mid-race to take a clear lead. From then on victory was never in doubt with the 7-year-old gelding racing away in the home straight to win by more than 20m.
His blistering 1:54.3 mile rate for the trip took almost a second off Tiger Tara’s track record set in the same race in 2017.
The win was some compensation for Swayzee’s unlucky fourth in the Miracle Mile on March 8, where he drew barrier one and was held up for almost the entire race.
“He only saw daylight in the last 50m and should have finished a lot closer. But that’s racing,” Drake added.
Hart has no qualms about rating Swayzee as the best horse he has driven.
“He’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime horse. The resume he’s got and the ride he’s taken Jase [Grimson] and the owners has been amazing for our careers,” Hart said.
“It was an incredible atmosphere and to have such a great horse here [at Penrith], I wanted to open him up and put on a show for the big crowd.
“Jase said he was in unreal order since the Miracle Mile and ready to run a great race.
“I have to pinch myself every time I drive him. He’s such an amazing animal, nothing like I’ve driven before.”
Swayzee joined Grimson’s stable in mid-2023 and has raced 29 times for him for 22 wins, four seconds, a third and two fourths. With the addition of last Sunday night’s bonus, he has won A$2,645,793.
His major wins have been the past two New Zealand Cups, last year’s Victoria Cup, this year’s Hunter Cup and the 2023 Blacks A Fake.
Grimson will now give Swayzee a short let-up before chasing another first in his career, a trip to Perth for the A$1.25m Group 1 Nullarbor at Gloucester Park on April 25.
Beyond Perth, Swayzee will be one of the star attractions of the revamped Brisbane Interdominion series at Albion Park in July.
Snazzytavi fighting for her life
Glamour racemare Snazzytavi has been struck down with laminitis and will need to draw on all her fighting qualities to win out in her battle against the illness.
The multiple Group One-winning daughter of Tavistock is currently doing as well as can be expected, receiving the best of local and international care.
“She remains at Matamata Vets where she has been for the last three or four weeks and has had an acute episode of laminitis, which is a chronic condition,” Cambridge Stud’s chief executive Henry Plumptre said.
“They got on to it pretty quickly and engaged the services of a Kentucky vet, Scott Morrison, who is overseeing her rehab and she’s got a very good team at MVS looking after her.
“She’s got to the point now where she is out in a small paddock for six hours a day and able to walk around and got specialists shoes on and casts on her front legs for support.
“She is bright and eating and drinking well and it’s now a case of waiting for the inflammation to disappear.
“She is doing as well as she can possibly be. She’s very unlikely to return to a racecourse but she is obviously a very valuable breeding prospect.”
Snazzytavi won nine of her 15 starts for trainers Graham Richardson and Rogan Norvall, including Group 1 victories in the Zabeel Classic (2000m) and Livamol Classic (2040m).
Champion racemare Sunline is one of many top gallopers who succumbed to laminitis after she was retired from racing.
Leica Lucy primed for her NZ farewell
Robbie Patterson couldn’t have wished for a smoother preparation with Leica Lucy heading into this Saturday’s Group 1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Trentham where the filly will make her Kiwi swansong as hot favourite in the $1 million feature.
Leica Lucy made light work of her rivals on debut in November, and from that point forward, she has been dominant.
Along the way, the daughter of Derryn has won the Group 3 Eulogy Stakes (1600m), Group 3 New Zealand Bloodstock Desert Gold Stakes (1600m), and Group 2 David and Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2000m) and her three-length demolition in the Group 2 Lowland Stakes (2100m).
Patterson shared plenty of admiration for his young star, who secured her status as NZB Filly of the Year with an unassailable lead over sprinter Alabama Lass.
“She’s leap-frogged from a maiden race, into a 3-year-old race and she’s been in Group races ever since,” he said. “She’s just taken every step in her stride, it’s been unbelievable really and for nothing to go wrong.
“We knew we had a good horse, but you don’t expect everything to go right all the time and it just has. It’s been an incredible climb, you don’t usually get that with a horse but she’s just one out of the box.”
Since her Lowland romp, it has been business as usual for Leica Lucy in New Plymouth, as she attempts to become Patterson’s second Oaks winner after Legs’ triumph in 2006, while training in partnership with Kevin Gray.
“We’ve done pretty much the same thing as she has done between all of her races, I’ve just given her an extra gallop than she did leading into the Lowland,” Patterson said.
Starting at $1.40, $1.30 and $1.10 in her last three appearances, the pressure and expectation to win has been a constant for Patterson, a factor he won’t miss when Leica Lucy heads to Chris Waller’s stable in Sydney after the Oaks.
“It will take the pressure off me I will admit, when you’ve got a $1.30 shot going around in a Group 1,” he said.
“I am looking forward to seeing her go to Australia to tell the truth, it’s where she belongs and I can’t be there all the time with just one horse. It’s fantastic for the owners Pete and Heather Crofskey here in New Zealand, it’s great for them to have a good horse racing over there.”
Sought After heading to Aussie stable
Promising 3-year-old Sought After is to head down a familiar route for Waikato Stud and continue his career in Australia.
The homebred and raced son of Tivaci will cross the Tasman next week to join the Pakenham stable of Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman.
Sought After will be following in the footsteps of the Matamata farm’s star galloper I Wish I Win, who was recently retired following a glittering career.
He was a two-time Group 1 winner, claimed the Golden Eagle (1500m), posted multiple top-flight placings and finished runner-up in The Everest (1200m) to bank more than A$12.5 million.
More modest expectations will be in place with Sought After, who nevertheless has displayed an abundance of talent in his short career.
He posted two wins and a placing in six appearances for Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott and off an interrupted preparation finished a gallant last-start fourth in The NZB Kiwi (1500m).
“He will follow the same pathway and go over to Peter and Katherine for a bit, between Lance and I we looked at things and there’s not many options here in the immediate future,” Mark Chittick said.
“All parties agreed that we would give him the opportunity over there and see whether he measures up.
“He’s lightly raced and it was a shame we weren’t able to get a race into him before The Kiwi because he was competitive, but just a run short.”
An Australian programme has yet to be confirmed, but a return home for next year’s Listed $1 million Aotearoa Classic (1600m) is on the table.
“If we feel that’s a good option for him then he’ll come back to Wexford Stables at the appropriate time and have a go at it on Karaka Millions night,” Chittick said.
The convicted drug dealer was a friend of murdered Outlaws president Peter Lui.