Ambitious Dragon reigns supreme in HK

Hawke's Bay-bred Ambitious Dragon has been crowned Hong Kong Horse of the Year.
It was one of four awards the Pins gelding won his connections at last weekend's Hong Kong Racing Awards, the others being Champion Middle-Distance Horse, Hong Kong's most improved horse and Hong Kong's most popular horse.
Ambitious Dragon was bred by Taupo-based Pat Lowry and reared at Hawke's Bay's Okawa Stud. He spent a short time in the Hastings stable of Guy Lowry before being sold to Hong Kong, where he is now trained by Tony Millard.
From eight starts this season Ambitious Dragon has recorded seven wins, the last five of them in succession. He completed a Group 1 winning treble when taking out the Hong Kong Classic, Hong Kong Derby and Queen Elizabeth II Cup and now has stake earnings of more than $HK22 million.
Such has been the meteoric rise by Ambitious Dragon that he has progressed from a Rating 57 horse in October last year to now having a Timeform rating of 125. He was a landslide winner as the peoples' choice for Hong Kong's favourite horse with almost 100,000 votes compared with second placed Beauty Flash on 23,000.
Ambitious Dragon is out of the Oregon mare Golden Gamble and Pat Lowry and his wife Jane sold a High Chaparral colt out of the mare at this year's Karaka yearling sales to the Hong Kong Jockey Club for $420,000.
Guy Lowry and his training partner Grant Cullen presently have a two-year-old gelding by Fast 'N' Famous out of Golden Gamble in work at Hastings. The mare also produced a colt foal by Thorn Park last year, which will also be offered at next January's Karaka yearling sales, and she is now in foal to Mastercraftsman.
Jimmy Choux to kick off in August Star Hastings galloper Jimmy Choux is being geared up for a return to racing in the $200,000 Makfi Hawke's Bay Challenge Stakes, feature race on the first day of this year's Hawke's Bay spring carnival.
The 1400-metre weight-for-age event, formerly called the Mudgway Partsworld Stakes, will be run on Saturday, August 27 and will again be the first Group 1 event in New Zealand for the new season. Sponsorship of the race has now been taken over by Westbury Stud, who will stand the European-bred stallion Makfi for the first time this year.
Jimmy Choux has been in light work at trainer John Bary's property for the past couple of months and both he and part-owner Richard Wood are thrilled with the way the horse spelled over the autumn and early winter.
"He looks better now than at any other stage of his three-year-old year," Wood said this week.
"He's grown about an inch and he's strengthened everywhere, without being top heavy."
Although Jimmy Choux has been restricted to light work at this stage Wood said the Thorn Park colt is already keen to do more and go a lot faster.
"He's eating up the work and it's like he's saying give me more," he said.
Jimmy Choux is this season's champion New Zealand three-year-old and one of the leading contenders for the title of New Zealand Horse of The Year. He was the winner of seven races from his 10 starts and achieved Group 1 success on both sides of the Tasman.
His New Zealand victories were recorded in the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas, Group 1 Telecom New Zealand Derby, Group 2 Hawke's Bay Guineas, Group 2 Great Northern Guineas, Group 3 Wellington Stakes and Group 3 Waikato Guineas while in Sydney he triumphed over several of Australia's top three-year-olds in the Group 1 Rosehill Guineas.
Wood said future plans for the horse will be made after his fresh up race on August 27.
"We'll decide after that run whether we stay here and race in the spring or head to either Sydney or Melbourne," Wood added.
Vamoose such a
talented jumperHawke's Bay-trained Vamoose confirmed his promise as a jumper with a runaway win in the $10,000 hurdle event at last Saturday's Manawatu meeting.
The His Royal Highness six-year-old scored an 8 length victory in the 2900-metre event, following on from a long neck win over hurdles at Rotorua on June 17. He has now had four jumping starts for two wins, a fourth and a sixth.
Vamoose had one win on the flat when prepared at Hastings by Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen and was then transferred to Paul Nelson to embark on a jumping career. He is raced by Hawke's Bay identity Hilton Meech, along with his daughter Anna Follett and Ashburton couple Brock and Catherine Peddie.
D'Llaro brings
in the dollarsFormer Hawke's Bay Racing general manager John McGifford celebrated success on the racetrack when D'Llaro broke through for a maiden victory over 2000 metres at Saturday's Waipa meeting.
McGifford shares in the ownership of the D'Cash four-year-old, who is trained at Cambridge by another former jumps jockey Graeme Lord.
D'Llaro was having just his ninth start and had finished second over 1400 metres on the Te Awamutu track last month. He seemed well with the very testing track conditions there on Saturday, holding out the fast finishing Tom's Myth to win by half a length.
Bary pair heading to far north
Hastings trainer John Bary is heading to the far north this weekend with two members of his racing team, No Excuse Maggie and Defiant.
Bary will be making his first trip with horses to a Whangarei Racing Club's meeting at Ruakaka, where No Excuse Maggie will contest the $30,000 Northern Fillies & Mares Series Final (1600m) and Defiant will tackle a $10,500 Rating 70 event over 2100 metres.
Both horses are coming off last-start wins, No Excuse Maggie having been successful in a Rating 70 1600 at Te Rapa on June 11 and Defiant taking out a Rating 70 1600 at Wanganui on June 23.
'Mickey' blows them away againTop winter galloper Hurricane Mickey recorded his 10th victory from 31 starts when taking out Saturday's feature race at the Waipa meeting, the $17,500 Te Awamutu Cup.
The six-year-old D'Cash gelding, part-owned by Hawke's Bay men Rupert Ryan and Tom Winiata, coped well with the very testing track conditions when carrying 58kg to a three-quarter length win in the 2100-metre event.