HE'S ONE of New Zealand's more inconsistent racehorses, but it was the good Veldt who showed up at Waipukurau yesterday and surged to a powerful half-length win in the $15,000 Mick O'Sullivan, John Turkington Forestry Cup.
The 6-year-old Volksraad gelding has shown glimpses of great ability through his 34-start career. He's scored six impressive wins, and as a 2-year-old he ran second in the Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes and fourth in the Karaka Million. But for every good performance, his connections and fans have had to put up with several bad ones. He's been unplaced in 21 of those 34 starts, and his good performances have been scattered randomly amongst them. It's near-impossible to predict which Veldt you're going to get until the starting gates crash open.
At Waipukurau yesterday Veldt broke well from an inside barrier, but was held back by rider David Walsh as Aintree, Belfast Lad and Inanoff took command. Walsh bided his time in second-last position for much of the 2100m event, sitting quietly in the saddle as the field swung out of the back straight, just 600m from home.
Still with only one runner behind him at the home turn, Walsh guided Veldt to the extreme outside and asked him to make his bid. The response was an impressive, sustained sprint that carried him to a comfortable and convincing win. Aintree held second, with Ballybit third. Favourite Inanoff faded to finish a disappointing seventh, beating just one runner home.
The rest of yesterday's races were utterly dominated by Hawke's Bay horses. Hastings trainers won four of the eight races, including two for the partnership of Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen.
