Bay jockey rides milestone win aboard outsider

Hawke’s Bay jockey Kate Hercock brings La Capita back at the head of the field after their success at New Plymouth last Saturday, led by the horse’s part-owner Tony Bambry. It was Hercock’s 300th New Zealand win. Photo / Supplied

A 10-out-of-10 ride from Kate Hercock aboard La Capita in a 1400m maiden race at New Plymouth last Saturday brought up a personal milestone for the Hawke’s Bay jockey.

It was Hercock’s 300th win in New Zealand and comes after a career that has spanned 29 years, albeit with a couple of sizeable gaps in the middle.

She also kicked home 20 winners while based in Macau for two years.

Win No. 300 on New Zealand soil came aboard 52-to-one outsider La Capita in the $30,000 Taranaki Daily News Maiden at the Taranaki Racing Club’s feature meeting with the senior rider showing up a few of her rivals in the process.

Hercock hunted La Capita out from the barrier and quickly had her a length clear of the field. She then dictated the pace to suit before getting her mount to quicken just before the home turn.

Entering the straight, La Capita had stolen a three-length break and was always going to be hard to catch from there. The Capitalist mare did start to shorten stride in the last 50m, with the favoured runners Freeze Frame and Islington Lass starting to flash home, but she had enough in reserve to hold on and win by a head.

It was Hercock’s 25th win for the season, with two of those victories being in black-type events, Pep Torque in the listed $65,000 Feilding Cup (2100m) at Awapuni in October and Soldier Boy in the listed $60,000 Marton Cup (2200m) at Trentham last month. She has now ridden 10 group or listed race winners.

She had four rides at New Plymouth last Saturday for a win and two seconds

Hastings-born Hercock began her race-riding career in the 1994-95 racing season but lacked opportunities in the beginning and took a break after the first two years of her apprenticeship before returning in 2002-23.

She chalked up her first five wins that season and the following year she amassed 56 wins, her season best.

Her success continued for the next six seasons as she tallied 237 New Zealand victories before making the decision to continue her career in Macau in 2010.

Hercock said it was a tough two years on the island, which is offshore from Hong Kong, and very lonely as a female rider when you are on your own.

The decision to return home was brought about by mainly a nasty race fall in which she broke both arms and was forced to give up riding for a long time again.

She returned to Matamata, where she worked for Waikato Stud in a pre-training capacity before spending time at Te Akau Racing as a trackwork rider.

The desire to return to her roots in Hawke’s Bay began to play on her mind so she left the Waikato to start up her own training and pre-training business on a family property in Otane in 2016. Her mother, former successful trainer Jeanann Hercock, joined her and they set up a business together.

Kate Hercock has trained a small team of horses from her base ever since and in mid-2020, she started to think about race riding again.

After riding a lot of trackwork in Hastings and at barrier trials, Hercock managed to get her weight down from 60kg to 53.5kg and she decided to return to race riding in late 2020.

Her first win since making the comeback was aboard Sunlit Lane in a 1400m maiden race at New Plymouth in March 2021.

The New Plymouth track has been good to Hercock as one of her biggest wins came aboard Pindy in the 2009 listed $100,000 Opunake Cup on the track, while she also won three listed sprint races on Richard Beymer.

“They were two of my favourites but my favourite horse of all was All’s Well,” she once said. “I rode him in eight of his 11 wins.”

Almost a notable double

Waipukurau racehorse owner Michael Ormsby came close to sharing in two black-type wins at last Saturday’s Dunedin meeting at Wingatui.

Ormsby is a member of the Te Akau Perfection Syndicate that races Perfect Scenario, winner of the Gr.3 $100,000 White Robe Lodge Stakes (1600m). He is also a member of the Te Akau Moonstruck Racing Partnership, which races Romancing The Moon, who was runner-up in the listed $80,000 Dunedin Guineas (1500m).

Matamata trainer Mark Walker lined up two runners in the White Robe Lodge Stakes, with Perfect Scenario expected to play second fiddle to his stablemate and race favourite Prise De Fer.

The scenario was turned on its head when Prise De Fer got back to last in the 11-horse field and never looked to be travelling at any stage. In contrast, rider Joe Kamaruddin followed a path along the inside rail on Perfect Scenario in a strongly run race and never went around another horse as he lodged his challenge at the top of the home straight.

The five-year-old son of Iffraaj burst clear and made it a one-horse affair in the final stages as he went on to win by three lengths.

1000 NZ wins for Walker

Mark Walker’s highly successful season produced another milestone victory at Taupo on Tuesday when the Te Akau head trainer unveiled a highly regarded juvenile to deliver on debut.

Walker was credited with his 1000th New Zealand success courtesy of Zourion, who scored in the Placemakers Taupo Two-year-old (1100m).

“I was getting pretty close to the mark before I left for Singapore and it’s great to tick that off for sure,” Walker said.

Zourion was set out a dominant favourite off the back of an impressive trial win at Tauranga last month and improved quickly to lead after a tardy beginning.

She was hotly challenged 150m from the finish by Sako before rallying to beat that Stephen Marsh-trained runner by half a length, with the winner’s stablemate Sky On Fire finishing third.

“I think it was a good effort because she only went into the race with a 750m trial and the filly that ran third is a stakes winner and I’d heard quite good things about the second horse,” Walker said.

He believes the form out of the race will be really strong and, providing Zourion progresses well, she will probably run next in the Gr.2 $120,000 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) on February 25.

The daughter of Zoustar, who was a $475,000 yearling purchase, has been nominated for the Gr.1 Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) in Sydney but Walker isn’t daring to dream just yet.

“We’ll get to Matamata first and small steps at a time. We’ll just wait and see how she progresses,” he said.

Zourion is raced by Cambridge Stud principals Brendan and Jo Lindsay, who had also celebrated an earlier win at Taupo with the filly’s stablemate Marvelouz taking out a maiden 1400m event. Both horses were ridden by South African-born jockey Warren Kennedy.

Walker produced three of the eight race winners at Taupo, with Insatiable also taking out the final event, a 1200m maiden, in the hands of Opie Bosson.

Insatiable is raced by the Te Akau All Too Much Racing Syndicate, with one of the members being Hastings woman Crystal Jager.

Promising winning debut

Australian-based stallion The Autumn Sun was represented with his first winner when race favourite Tulsi made a successful debut in the two-year-old race at Tauherenikau on Monday.

The Johno Benner and Hollie Wynyard-trained juvenile had won a trial in impressive fashion at Foxton last month, with punters seeing enough to install her a $2.10 favourite for the 1000m dash.

Rider Michael McNab bounced the filly out well but elected to take cover as the early pace was disputed by stablemates Lincoln Towers and Get Funky.

McNab swooped wide on the corner and, under a vigorous ride, Tulsi unleashed a powerful finishing burst to get up and win by a head from another promising debutant in No Rain Ever.

Raced by Waikato-based Gary Harding, Tulsi was a A$550,000 purchase out of the 2022 Inglis Classic Sale and looks to have a bright future, an opinion shared by Benner.

“She looks and raced like a true professional, which was great to see as she was up against a field that had plenty of raceday experience,” Benner said.

Tulsi is out of the Lonhro mare Talimena, who is a half-sister to Kiamichi, the Australian Champion two-year-old in 2018-19 who numbered the Gr.1 Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) among her career victories.