Horse racing: Lady with an attitude has what it takes

Lady Guinness and apprentice jockey Jasmine Fawcett manage to get in the deciding stride for a half-head victory over Handful in a Rating 65 race.

The skills of Hastings trainer Patrick Campbell have turned Lady Guinness from a one-time problem horse into a three-race winner.

The Falkirk mare brought up her third victory from only eight starts when she got a last stride decision in a $10,000 Rating 65 race over 1400m at last Sunday's Hawke's Bay meeting.

Campbell is the first to admit that when Lady Guinness first entered his stable she was nothing but trouble. She was difficult to do anything with and it was always a mission just to get her on and off the track of a morning to undergo normal work.

It got to a stage that, instead of walking out, Lady Guinness was jogged from the tie up stalls to the training track to prevent her from stopping and either spinning around or rearing up.

Campbell says Lady Guinness is still not easy to train but at least she now walks out to do her trackwork without too much fuss.

"She can still be a problem coming off the track, especially when there are other horses around her, but she is a lot better."

Lady Guinness certainly lacks nothing on the score of ability and toughness, as she showed when winning last Sunday.

She jumped from the extreme outside barrier and was always at least three-wide in the running. Apprentice jockey Jasmine Fawcett sent the mare on a forward move starting the last 600m and she was the widest runner making the home turn.

Handful, with Jonathan Riddell aboard, looked the likely winner when in front 100m out but Lady Guinness was not to be denied and got up on the line for a half-head victory.

All three wins by Lady Guinness have been on her home track and at three different distances. The first was over 1300m in March this year and she was then successful over 1600m the next month.

Campbell said he will now step the mare back up to 1600m in a Rating 75 race at Otaki on December 1.

Lady Guinness is owned by Windsor Park Stud and is raced on lease by a 14-member syndicate, all of whom live in Hawke's Bay.

Jason Britton manages the syndicate and has a 20 per cent share with the other members being Don, Rob and Alistair Poulgrain, Aaron Brittin, Nick Dorwood, Aaron Bourke, Jamie Flett, Mark O'Shaughnessy, Kelly O'Rourke, Eddie and Scotty Burn, Kim Bone and Patrick Campbell.

Lady Guinness is out of the Danske mare Grace Park, who recorded three wins and eight minor placings from only 16 starts, and one of her victories was in the Listed New Zealand Bloodstock Air Freight Stakes (1600m) at Riccarton.

High Spirits back in form

It was a case of déjà vu when Hastings-trained High Spirits won over 2100m on her home track last Sunday.

It was the horse's second success and the first was also over 2100m at the same Hawke's Bay meeting 12 months ago. The only differences were the winning margin and dividend.

When High Spirits won her maiden race 12 months ago she came from eighth on the home turn to get up and snatch victory by a long head and paid $6.90. Last Sunday she again came from off the pace at the 600m but quickly got to the front early in the home straight and kept up a strong run to the line to win by 1-3/4 lengths, returning outside odds of 16 to one.

It was a complete form reversal after her best placing from her four most recent starts had been a seventh.

High Spirits is a 4-year-old mare by Darci Brahma out of the Montjeu mare Spiriting and is trained by John Bary. He bought the filly for $80,000 from the premier session of the 2014 Karaka yearling sales and then set about syndicating her.

Havelock North couple Hylton and Colleen Gudsell own a 40 per cent share in the horse with Bary being one of 12 shareholders who own the other 60 per cent between them.

Other Hawke's Bay people involved are Napier couple Bruce and Annette Keighley, Richard Koorey and Mark Donnelly. Gisborne-based John McLaughlin also has a share while the other owners live in Auckland, Wellington and Ashburton.

Bary's racing manager Mike Sanders said this week that High Spirits has been a work in progress.

"She's quite a quirky mare. She can do some unbelievable things in trackwork and can run 11 seconds for 200m but hasn't always done it on race day.

"John has varied her training and given her dressage and jumping to keep her mind ticking over and it has obviously worked."

Sanders said last Sunday's win was mainly attributed to a great ride from in-form jockey Samantha Collett, who sensed that she needed to get the horse going at the 600m and never missed a beat in urging her to the line.

"It was an 11 out of 10 ride," Sanders said.

"She is a big striding mare and you've got to get her out and keep her rolling and that was what she did."

High Spirits was only on a rating of 56 points before last Sunday and that win has taken her to 62 points, which will now make her eligible for a Rating 65 race over 2300m at Otaki on December 1.

Sanders said John Bary thinks the mare is an out and out stayer and can't wait to get her up to 3200m. Her dam Spiriting was the winner of one race and that was over 2000m.

Miss Wilson on song

Class Hastings-trained mare Miss Wilson turned in an impressive exhibition gallop between races at last Sunday's Hawke's Bay meeting in preparation for tomorrow's Group 2 $100,000 Stella Artois Tauranga Stakes (1600m).

Jockey Jonathan Riddell was aboard the Stratum mare and she recorded 1:11 for a solo 1200m, up against the running rail, on the course proper. She ran the first 600m in 36.3 and quickened over the last 600m in 34.7.

Riddell said the horse felt great in the gallop, adding that she is obviously a class galloper.

Miss Wilson, who is trained by John Bary, was an impressive last start winner of the Group 3 Red Badge Spring Sprint (1400m) at Hastings on October 22. Bary will be using tomorrow's race as a lead-up to the Group 1 $200,000 Captain Cook Stakes (1600m) at Trentham on December 9.

HB connection with greys' race

The Subzero Handicap, a race confined to grey horses, is one of the feature events on Oaks Day at Flemington each year and last week's edition was won by a horse with a strong Hawke's Bay connection.

Tribal Wisdom, a 4-year-old gelding by Makfi, scored a game head victory in the 1400m event for former Kiwi trainer Mike Moroney, who is now based at Flemington.

Moroney is best known as the trainer of the 2000 Melbourne Cup winner Brew, who was by Sir Tristram out of the outstanding mare Horlicks and was bred by Hawke's Bay's Graham de Gruchy.

Tribal Wisdom is a grandson of Horlicks. His dam is Platinum Passion, who is by Redoute's Choice out of the unraced mare Stella Artois.

De Gruchy bred Stella Artois, who was by Star Way out of Horlicks. She recorded three seconds and a third in barrier trials but never got to the races and was sold to Jomara Bloodstock.

Horlicks was the winner of 17 races from 1200m to 2400m including the Group 1 Japan Cup. Her other Group 1 victories were in the Auckland Racing Club's DB Draught Classic (twice), The New Zealand Stakes at Ellerslie (twice) and the LKS MacKinnon Stakes at the Flemington track in Melbourne.

Savabeel's stock to the fore

New Zealand's champion sire Savabeel has continued to scale new heights as a sire in recent weeks, with his progeny extending his number of individual Group 1 winners to 14.

Shillelagh kicked things off strongly for the Waikato Stud stallion on the opening day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival, winning the Group 1 Kennedy Mile (1600m) for owners and breeders Christopher and Susanna Grace.

A week later regally-bred colt Embellish improved his sire's statistics further by taking out last Saturday's Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton.

Purchased by Te Akau principal David Ellis for $775,000 out of Waikato Stud's 2016 Premier yearling sale draft, Embellish is a brother to Group 1 winner Diademe and is now being set for lofty targets on both sides of the Tasman.

"We'll now get him ready for the Karaka Mile at Ellerslie in January," Ellis said.

"We'll then look at taking him to the Australian Guineas at Flemington and then we'll head up to Sydney for the classic races up there."

Savabeel was represented by another classic winner last Saturday when Savapinski won the Group 2 Matriarch Stakes (2000m) at Flemington, in Melbourne.

Savapinski was bought by Gai Waterhouse and Dynamic Syndications for $70,000 at the 2015 New Zealand Bloodstock Select Yearling Sale.

The 4-year-old's victory has helped extend Savabeel's impressive strike-rate to 6.3 per cent Group winners to runners and an incredible 10.1 per cent Stakes winners to runners.

Savabeel stands at Waikato Stud for a service fee of $100,000 + GST and will be represented by five lots at next week's New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale.