Double success for HB in 2000 Guineas

For the second year in a row a Hawke’s Bay bred and owned galloper has captured one of the jewels in the three-year-old crown, the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas.

Last year it was Jimmy Choux, bred and owned by Havelock North couple Richard and Liz Wood. On Saturday it was Rock ‘n’ Pop, bred by Sam Kelt under the company banner of Barnaby & Co Limited. The only difference is that last year’s 1600-metre feature carried stakemoney of $1million whereas Saturday’s race was run for just $400,000.

Kelt bred Rock ‘n’ Pop out of his top racemare Popsy and offered the colt for sale at the premier session of the 2010 Karaka yearling sales, where he was knocked down to the bid of Singapore-based businessman Jayven See for $1million. However See did not want to own the horse outright so he asked Te Akau principal, David Ellis, to offer shares in the colt to his clients. Sam Kelt and See have remained in the ownership as the majority shareholders with a large number of other people taking up varying shares and the group has been named the Te Akau Rock ‘n’ Pop Syndicate.

Popsy, a Sir Tristram mare, was the winner of six races in Kelt’s colours, including the 1993 Group 1 New Zealand Derby. She also won the Group 1ARC Championship Stakes and both the Queen Elizabeth Handicap and Counties Cup at Group 2 level.

At stud she has also left the highclass racemare Lilakyn, winner of eight races and placed second in the Brisbane Cup, while Shostakovich (four wins), Hillsgrove (two wins), Van Nistelroy (four wins), Dragon Lass (two wins) and Cosmo Tiger (two wins) are other successful progeny out of the mare.

Rock ‘n’ Pop, a son of boom Australian sire Fastnet Rock, was having just his fourth start on Saturday and upstaged the favourites, including his stablemate Burgundy.

One of three horses in the race for trainer Jason Bridgman, Rock ‘n’ Pop was expected to play second fiddle to the unbeaten Burgundy but he only managed sixth after disputing the pace to the home turn. A post race veterinary examination of the Redoute’s Choice colt revealed he was suffering from the thumps, a form of heart fibrillation, and Bridgman said he will now be spelled and brought back next autumn. Rock ‘n’ Pop is also likely to be freshened with Bridgman saying the Fastnet Rock colt had come a long way in a short time. He would like to aim him at the New Zealand Derby next March.

“He’s a progressive horse and these Fastnet Rock horses are just on fire. He’s always had that turn of foot in the tank and we’d learned enough from his previous three runs to know that he had to be held up. The way he relaxes now, there’s no reason why we can’t consider a Derby,” Bridgman said.

Anabandana was sent out favourite for Saturday’s 2000 Guineas and looked the likely winner when rider James McDonald took her to the front early in the home straight. But Rock ‘n’ Pop, who had enjoyed an economical run from the number one barrier, dashed through a gap between horses at the 300 metres for rider Jamie Bullard and accelerated clear to beat the filly by half a length.

Firm surface suits Jakob Gambino

The very firm track at Gisborne last weekend for the two-day Poverty Bay meeting didn’t suit some horses but was made to order for Hastings owned and trained Jakob Gambino.

The three-year-old gelding was having just his fourth start when he lined up in an $8000 maiden over 1200 metres last Friday and deadheated for first with debut runner Ocean Park.

Jakob Gambino is owned by Hawke’s Bay couple Kevin and Shirin Wood along with their Bermuda-based son Calvin and is trained at Hastings by John Bary.

Calvin Wood, an accountant, bought the horse’s dam, Sheeza Kinda Magic, at a dispersal sale and he and his parents gave her three starts as a racehorse.

“She had bone chips in her legs and wasn’t right so we pulled the plug pretty quick,” Shirin Wood recalled.

Sheeza Kinda Magic is by Towkay out of Wake Up Suzie, making her a full-sister to the highclass racemare Kay’s Awake, who won six races and posted seconds and thirds in both the Group 1 Telegraph Handicap (1200m) at Trentham and Group 1 Waikato Draught Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa.

Jakob Gambino, by Sandtrap, is the only living foal out of the mare, who also produced a Scaredee Cat colt that had to be put down and has missed getting in foal twice, to Viking Ruler and Keeper. The Woods have now mated the mare this year with Don Eduardo.

The stock of Sandtrap usually appreciate soft footing but Jakob Gambino is just the opposite. He finished fourth in his debut, on a heavy track at Trentham last January, but wasn’t happy in the going then and was then unplaced in his next two starts, on a heavy track at Foxton and on dead footing at Rotorua.

Bary accepted and scratched the horse at least three times between that Rotorua race and Gisborne, just waiting for a firm track and the owners’ patience was rewarded.

Bary thought Jakob Gambino had only finished second in the race and connections endured several anxious minutes before a deadheat was declared.

“Calvin listened to the race on the radio and was ringing to find out what had happened and it was quite a while before I could tell him the result,” Shirin Wood added.

Jakob Gambino is now likely to have a brief 10 day spell and then be aimed at a Rating 70 race somewhere, on a firm track.

Arizona Jazz adds to successful run

Hastings owned and trained Arizona Jazz maintained a 100 per cent winning record for his dam Johnny Loves Jazz when successful in an $8000 maiden race over 1200 metres at last Friday’s Poverty Bay meeting at Gisborne,.

The High Chaparral five-year-old is owned by the brothers Chris and Ken Russell and trained on the Hastings track by Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen.

Johnny Loves Jazz is now dead but has produced nine foals that have raced and every one of them has now been a winner. Arizona Jazz was the second to last of her progeny and capped off two previous third placings with a decisive win at Gisborne, crediting the mare with her second success for the week. On Melbourne Cup day her last foal and full-brother to Arizona Jazz, Shoot Higher, was also successful in Australia.

Other winners out of the mare have been Jazz’n Along, Jose, Classic Jazz, Native Jazz, Pentamerous, All That Jazz and Sea Jazz.

Pentamerous, whom the Russell’s sold to an Australian buyer as a young horse, is the dam of the multiple Group 1 winner Shoot Out.

Arizona Jazz has been troubled by unsoundness which is why he has only started racing as a five-year-old this season. He did a lot wrong when placed in both of his first two starts, at Taupo and Hastings, and also raced erratically in the early and middle stages last Friday. But once he got balanced up in the straight he strode clear to win by 4 lengths.