And they’re off: A Spring Racing Carnival fixture lines up in the big one

Hastings galloper Callsign Mav has been confirmed a starter in Hawke’s Bay’s richest race for the first time after being a fixture over the last five years.

In what is part of a big week for Hawke’s Bay events, the 7-year-old gelding, trained in Hastings by John Bary, will race the $400,000 Livamol Classic on Saturday.

It will be his first start in the 2040-metre feature, despite having had four wins in eight Hawke’s Bay Spring Racing Carnival races, dating back to victory in the Hastings - Heart of Hawke’s Bay 1300 on the first of the three days in 2019, just two months after winning an 800m maiden on the track in the first of its now 33 starts.

A year later Callsign Mav stunned punters with victory at odds of better than 80-1 in the 1400m Tarzino Trophy race, the first event each year in the carnival’s Group 1 triple-crown.

In 2021 he proved it was no fluke, winning the race again, and then second-day 1600m feature the Windsor Park Plate, before bypassing the third day and heading to Melbourne for the 2040m W.S. Cox Plate at Moonee Valley. But in a bid for some of the more than $5 million in stakes, he could muster just seventh in a field of eight in what would be the first of 12 starts in Australia, in which the only win was a million-dollar affair at Caulfield in September last year.

Callsign Mav returned to New Zealand and started a new race preparation in August, and placed fifth in the trophy race and third in the Plate on the first two days of the carnival in preparation for this week’s challenge, just his fourth start at 2000m or beyond, with about $1.64m banked over the years for his trans-Tasman ownership.

Soon after the 14 starters became known on Wednesday, Callsign Mav was listed by the TAB as fifth-favourite, paying $16 to win, with 5-year-old Cambridge mare Mustang Valley a warm favourite at $2.20, having won the race last year and the 1600m Plate (now the Arrowfield Stud Plate) a fortnight ago.

There will be 10 races at Hastings on Saturday, with the first at 12.20pm, the Classic at 4.26pm and the last at 5.38pm, and a total of $1,040,000 on the line during the day.

With second-feature the Spring Sprint, with a $120,000 stake, at 3.16pm, and the other eight races on the card with stakes of $65,000, it’s the first million-dollar race day in the heyday of the big race as the Kelt Capital Stakes, which was the richest race in New Zealand in 2007 and 2008 with stakes totalling $2m.

There’s been just one winner of the Triple Crown (Melody Bell winning all three big races in 2019), but there won’t be any this year, although there’s a two-in-a-row hope in 5-year-old Cambridge mare Mustang Valley, which won last year and also won the 1600m Plate race (now the Arrowfield Stud Plate) on September 30.

Big-race jockey Opie Bosson, who has won the race four times, will be back with several rides, including Our Alley Cat in the Spring Sprint, a race in which he copped a six-week suspension for an incident in the race, which he won on Times Ticking.

Times Ticking is a starter in the Classic on Saturday, with Lisa Allpress to ride, but early on Wednesday afternoon, Bosson did not have a ride listed.

Callsign Mav will be ridden by regular New Zealand jockey Jonathan Riddell, and Mustang Valley by Joe Doyle, who was aboard for the first time in the Hastings win two weeks ago.

It was Mustang Valley’s sixth win in 26 starts, and she was among 31 horses which remained in the running for the October 28 Cox Plate in Australia, with 31 making the third acceptance on Tuesday.

While the Livamol Classic is the richest in New Zealand pre-Christmas, there are much bigger pickings in Australia on Saturday, with $A20m ($21.3m) 1200m sprint The Everest being run at Royal Randwick, Sydney.

The field for the Livamol Classic is (with odds and barrier draws): 1 Callsign Mav (9), $16; 2 Defibrillate (2), $18; 3 Justaskme (8), $31; 4 Times Ticking (11), $21; 5 Platinum Invador (5), $21; 6 Ladies Man (7), $8; 7 Chase (3), $41; 8 Dionysus (14), $21; 9 Cakebytheocean (6), $31; 10 Mustang Valley (4), $2.20; 11 Aromatic (12), $10; 12 Pearl Of Alsace (1), $4.20; 13 Enchanted Elle (10), $31; 14 Poser (13), $31.