RACING: Outsider shocks punters

RICHARD EDMUNDS
On a day dominated by Hawke's Bay horses, it was no surprise when a local took out the feature event, the $18,000 Furnware New Zealand Stayers, at Hastings on Saturday.
What was surprising though was that it was a relative outsider from Wairoa rather than one of Guy Lowry's runners.
Lowry had five winners on the day and when Shostakovich loomed dangerously half way up the straight it looked distinctly possible that he could take out the day's main race and make it six.
But he came to the end of his run, being passed by former Group 1 winner Rodin, before Earaheedy emerged along the inside.
The Frank Brown-trained mare, one of the few Wairoa-trained horses in racing, attracted little attention prior to the race with a fairly modest career record and unimpressive recent form in a field with plenty of quality including Oaks placegetter Out Of Align.
As a result of this she was sent out at odds of $15.50 to win, but the five year-old's connections have always had a reasonably high opinion of the horse, as shown by the fact that she has taken part in such races as the St Leger at Trentham, and her third win in her 15th start, thanks in part to an excellent ride by Kane Smith, rewarded their confidence and persistence.
The day belonged to Lowry and jockey Darryl Bradley however, both of whom recorded five wins on the day. They shared in the most impressive performance of the day, with Bradley riding the Lowry-trained Zabene to a stunning last-to-first win in the fifth race of the day.
The Derby-bound son of Zabeel was sent out a hot favourite but looked anything but a certainty at the top of the straight, having dropped to last and being forced to go widest of all around the turn. But the highly-rated colt produced an excellent finish down the outside to record a narrow but emphatic win.
Lowry had two other impressive three-year-old winners in the form of Patrick and Port Merion.
Patrick started his career off in the best way possible with an easy two-length debut win, while Port Merion continued her improvement with every race. The daughter of O'Reilly is so highly rated that she holds a nomination for the Group 1 Automotivepryde Levin Classic at Otaki on Thursday, and although further improvement will be required for her to compete with the likes of Jokers Wild and Dorabella, she proved that she has no shortage of ability.
Highly-rated filly Irlanda failed to achieve what was expected to be an easy win, but was absolutely luckless.
Bruce Herd spent the early part of the home straight searching desperately for a clear run on the unbeaten favourite, but without success until seemingly far too late. She accelerated impressively once in the clear and did remarkably well to get within half a head of winner Shear Marie in a performance that will lose her absolutely no admirers.
Meanwhile, Group 1 Kelt Capital Stakes-winning jockey Lisa Cropp continued her excellent form at Ellerslie in taking out the day's feature race aboard Woodville gelding Chettak. The Shaun Marsh-trained runner ran at Hastings four times over the spring and improved with each run, the improvement shown clearly by his win in the G2 Counties Cup on Saturday over Ritzy Lady and Ntamack.