Hastings pair dream of NZ Trotting Cup success
Two Hastings men, Lester Drake and Neville Jackson, have been living the dream as part-owners of Australia’s latest pacing sensation, Swayzee, and now they can’t wait to see their charge line up in the $750,000New Zealand Cup at Addington on November 14.
The pair are part of a quartet of owners in the 6-year-old superstar, the others being the horse’s New South Wales trainer Jason Grimson and another Australian, Mike Boots.
Swayzee took his record to 18 wins, the last eight of them in a row when he led all the way to win an A$50,000 mobile free-for-all over 2400m at Menangle last Sunday. His winning margin was 10 lengths and he clocked a quick time of 2:47.50, thereby confirming his trip across the Tasman for the New Zealand Cup (3200m).
There he is set to clash with New Zealand’s latest star pacer, Akuta, who cruised to a 2-¼-length win in Monday’s Kaikoura Cup (2400m).
The TAB bookies have Akuta a $1.90 favourite for the cup, but Swayzee has now come in to be a clear second favourite at $3.20.
Both Drake and Jackson are excited just to have a runner in a race like the New Zealand Cup, let alone one of the favourites.
“It’s obviously a huge thrill and we are both going down to Christchurch to be part of it,” Drake said this week.
“Akuta is obviously a very good horse, but so is our bloke.”
Drake has been involved in several harness horses over the years, but nothing like a Swayzee.
“I’ve raced a few slow ones in the past, as most people do, and I turned 80 in August so I have had to wait this long to get a really good one.”
Swayzee was initially purchased as a young horse by New Zealand trainer Tim Butt, who offered Drake and Jackson a share.
Butt prepared the horse for his first 10 wins and then Grimson took him over and he is unbeaten in his last eight starts.
The New Zealand Cup has been the aim for Swayzee since he upstaged his year-younger half-brother Leap To Fame, to score a 3¼-length win in the Gr.1 $A400,000 Blakes A Fake Classic (2680m) at Albion Park, Queensland, in July.
That was the horse’s sixth win on end and he made it seven on the trot when he resumed from a spell to take out a 2300m free-for-all at Menangle by 5½ lengths on October 14.
All of Swayzee’s wins have been in mobile events so, with the New Zealand Cup being a standing start, his connections decided to trial the horse from a stand over 2300m at Menangle on Thursday last week.
Swayzee didn’t just step away well in the standing-start trial — his first try at the caper — but left driver Cam Hart convinced that not even the huge Addington Cup Day crowd and atmosphere would be an issue.
“Jase [trainer Jason Grimson] and I didn’t think it would be a problem and he certainly confirmed it,” Hart said after the trial.
“He was relaxed, stood there well and stepped away nicely. He feels like he’d stand there for five minutes if you wanted him to.”
“The point-to-point speed he showed in the trial was fantastic. It’s the sharpest he’d ever felt for me.”
Hart insists Swayzee has improved since downing Leap To Fame on July 22.
“I’m sure he’s come back better after the break,” he said. “That speed, the sharpness.”
That trial win set Swayzee up nicely for last Sunday’s Menangle race and he could not have been more impressive, bowling along in front and treating his rivals with contempt over the closing stages.
Swayzee has won over distances ranging from 1609m to 2680m so stepping up to the 3200m of the New Zealand Cup will also be something new for the horse, but Drake said his connections are confident he will get the distance.
Drake said Swayzee doesn’t have a devastating sprint but likes to bowl along up or near the lead and will just keep on going at a fast rate.
“So the barrier draw will probably have a big bearing on the outcome.
“It would be great if he could get a decent front-row draw, but if he draws the second row and Akuta draws the front that might make all the difference.”
The Hastings training centre will have a representative at today’s first day of the rich Melbourne Cup carnival at Flemington with Zambezi Khan lining up in the Gr.2 A$300,000 Wakeful Stakes.
The Mongolian Khan filly, trained by Guy Lowry, has been based in Victoria since the beginning of September. She has had three starts over there for a first-up seventh over 1200m at Seymour followed by an impressive win over 1500m at Mornington, and a good last-start second over 1881m at Kyneton.
Lowry has flown over to Australia to finalise the filly’s preparation and if she performs well in today’s 2000m event, she will then push on to the Gr.1 A$ million Kennedy VRC Oaks (2500m) at Flemington next Thursday.
Zambezi Khan has had only six starts. She won her debut over 1000m at Tauherenikau back in January and had two more New Zealand runs for two fifth placings before being turned out for a spell.
She is owned by Taradale couple Mark Evans and Lynette Hammington in partnership with their good friends Thomas and Julie Cowan, who live on the Gold Coast in Australia.
Evans bought the filly for $5000 when she was offered as a yearling on Gavelhouse in August 2021, and she has already won her connections more than $30,000 in stakemoney.
Regular updates from across the Tasman have kept a constant smile on New Plymouth trainer Allan Sharrock’s face since his stable star Ladies Man left for Australia.
Sharrock was on a flight to Melbourne yesterday to put the final touches on his Gr.1 A$8.4million Melbourne Cup (3200m) contender, who will step out in today’s Gr.3 A$300,000 Lexus Archer Stakes.
The Zed 6-year-old has only six rivals in the 2500m event, with the winner guaranteed a start in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup.
Ladies Man booked his passage across the Tasman with a last-start victory in the Gr.1 $450,000 Livamol Classic (2040m) on the final day of the Colliers Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival, on October 14.
He then travelled to Australia in the care of Sharrock’s partner Emma Davies, who has relayed nothing but positive reports back to Sharrock since.
“From all reports he looks super and he worked superbly last Saturday. He’s very, very well,” he said.
Ladies Man is stabled at the Mornington training operation of Sharrock’s long-time friend and former top jumps jockey Brett Scott.
“We go back a long way. I was best man at his wedding,” Sharrock said.
“Everything seems to be going to plan at this stage. The horse is in a happy environment and Emma is really thrilled with him,” he said.
Part-owned by Sharrock and the O’Leary and Stanley families from Whanganui and New Plymouth, Ladies Man has won seven of his 22 starts and proved his depths of stamina last season with a stout finish from the tail of the field to run third in the Gr.2 Auckland Cup (3200m).
He will be given a chance to familiarise himself with the track and the atmosphere on Saturday.
“The Lexus isn’t the goal, it’s the Cup obviously, but he can have a good look at Flemington and get a feel for the crowd before Tuesday,” Sharrock said.
“There was one wise old trainer who always raced them on the Saturday and then the Cup and that was Bart Cummings, so I don’t see any problem with it.
“He can pull a little bit in his races, so a run on Saturday will just take that edge off him, it should work out well.”
Lightweight Australian jockey Dean Yendall has been booked to ride Ladies Man in both the Lexus and the Melbourne Cup.
“He will ride him in both, the horse has only got 50kg in the Cup but I’ll need a wheelbarrow to take the saddle out on Saturday because he’s got 59kg,” Sharrock said.
Babylon Berlin was the bridesmaid behind Imperatriz and Levante in the feature sprints last season and trainers Ben and Ryan Foote are hoping it is now her time to earn her elite-level crown.
The now-6-year-old mare finished runner-up behnd Imperatriz in the Gr.1 Railway Stakes (1200m) and Gr.1 BCD Group Sprint (1400m), and then behind Levante in the Gr.1 Telegraph Sprint (1200m).
Foote has derived a lot of satisfaction from watching Imperatriz dominate the Melbourne feature sprints over spring.
With an eye towards the summer sprints, Babylon Berlin had a resuming run at the recent Te Rapa trials, where she scored a comfortable win over 900m.
“It was a good hit-out. She has been in work for a little while and I just wanted to see where her fitness was,” Foote said.
“I told Courtney [Barnes, jockey] to keep punching her through the line to make sure she had a really good hit-out.
“She said she had a handful and was doing it pretty easy.”
Babylon Berkin is now on a path towards both the Railway and Telegraph in January.
