Friday Flash 28th August

Three confirmed Fortuna Runners in Singapore on Sunday 23^rd – one on Ballot

Fortuna runners in Singapore on Sunday 30th are Marcus Antonius (Race 2 – 4.30pm NZT), Hidden Promise (Race 8 – 7.30pm) and Hadeer (Race 11 – 9pm)  – Red Rover is Race 13 (10pm) but does need scratchings to get a start

3yo Marcus Antonius was good on debut 26^th July, drawing wide and suffering a check at the start – he has since trained on well and ran 2^nd in a recent trial. A promising type, he has a very wide barrier draw to contend with again on the Turf short course with barrier in C position. To be ridden by Mark Walker’s star apprentice K Hakim (claiming 3kgs) he will carry just 49.5kgs – draw makes it very tough, but look for him to be storming home at the finish

Hidden Promise backs up from last week (1200m) into this week’s more suitable 1600m Class 5 trip on the Turf. String to the line last week when finishing 5^th, this trip is more to his liking (all 5 of his Singapore wins have been at 1600m), but has a horror outside barrier draw to contend with. Will be ridden by Dennis Tan (claiming 4kgs) – Dennis rode the Fortuna horse, Sportscaster to victory a couple of weeks ago – and so will only carry 51.5kgs with the claim. Will need a strong pace and a lot of luck to feature – any rain will help.

Hadeer is another with a horror draw, but he is on the Polytrack in this Class 4 1100m race and does have the services of leading jockey Vlad Duric – a winner in Australia, his 2 Singapore runs to date have had merit and can feature with some luck in the running

See below what the Turf Club analysts have to say about this race;

1st Pick: HEALTHY STAR (8)

Didn’t get much galloping room at his last start. Could have won the race. Has drawn marble one. Big say in this.

2nd Pick: HADEER (4)

Has done nothing wrong in two runs here. Drawn awkwardly, but if he gets the right runs, he can threaten late. Crossover noseband on.

3rd Pick: SUN PRINCEPS (6)

Powered home for third at his comeback run. On that form, he has to be considered in this lot.

4th Pick: THE BROTHERHOOD (10)

Scored gutsy maiden win last time. This is tougher, but he can still pinch a place with some luck

Red Rover is Ballot 2 and needs  scratchings, but then has to contend with a wide barrier draw. If he does get a run, he would need an awful lot of things to go right to be in contention

Te Akau Track work this week – Fortuna Runners –  Matamata

Tuesday 25^th August

Burgundy Belle (T Harris) worked nicely at three quarter pace over 800 metres in 59.7, home in 45.2.

Thursday 27^th August

Burgundy Belle (J Kamaruddin) worked at three quarter pace over 800 metres in 59.8, last 600 in 43.9.

Other News

Melody Belle is to return home from Australia and will campaign in New Zealand during the Spring and Summer and may return to Australia to campaign in the Autumn

5yo Gelding Khafeef, who ran a strong finishing 5^th at Taupo recently on his NZ debut (he is a UK import with one win over there) has gone to the South Island with a small team of other Te Akau trained horses and will have a three to five race campaign there over the next three months

Finally, a word about our very latest acquisition, the 3yo Gelding NAVALHA (Portuguese word for “Razor”).

Key points about this horse are:

• A A$450,000 Yearling purchase at the January 2019 Gold Coast Yearling Sales, he clearly ticked a few boxes at the time for the very professional James Harron Bloodstock operation (not to mention the underbidders who would have done their homework as well)
• Acquired as a Stallion making proposition, when it became obvious to his Ownership Team that he was not going to be a Group One Star as a Colt, they decided to move him on (this is a very common story) and he was acquired by Fortuna at an Inglis Online Sale
• Navalha had three trials between Dec 2019 and May 2020 as a 2yo and three races in June and July, running a close up 4th in his last race – Click HERE to see that replay
• Still a Colt, our spies indicated to us that he was a horse that badly needed Gelding.
• By the Golden Slipper winner Sebring, who had now sired close to 600 winners including 60 Stakes winners and from a very strong female family (Dam sire is Encosta de Lago), Navalha doesn’t lack for much on the Pedigree front
• Gelding him in Australia the day after we bought him, Navalha is now at Te Akau Stud and was inspected by David Ellis (who had been away on vacation) on Tuesday – David says “John, I finally got to see your Sebring Gelding – he is a beauty – well proportioned, strong through the shoulder, great in the coat and with a great walk, he is hard to fault physically”
• Navalha will have another two weeks in the paddock at Te Akau Stud and then come into work at Matamata where Jamie will work him up with the aim of having him ready to race early December.
• Still a Maiden, he will contest Maiden 3yo events until winning and if up to the necessary standard, will contest some of the nice 3yo races in the late summer/autumn
• Notable that Navalha is eligible to run in the various races run on Magic Millions Day on the Gold Coast (January of each year) – while he won’t have time to make the A$2m Magic Million Guineas in January 2021, he will be eligible for one of the 6 or 7 other Million Dollar races run for older horses each year at that meeting in subsequent years.
• Progeny of Sebring are renowned for taking a bit of time to mature and we believe from what we have seen of him so far that his best distances are likely to be in the 1400m to 2000m range
• We didn’t pay a lot to secure this horse, he has been syndicated for an all up total of NZ$76,000 – this includes his purchace cost, NZ GST, freight from Aus, Promoter’s fees, Insurance to 31 Jan 2022 and working capital.
• As always we do shares down to 1% but a 5% share is $3800, a 2.5% share is $1900 and a 1% share $900 Ongoing monthly fees commence 1 October 2020 at $40 for each 1%
• Click HERE to read more on the Fortuna website – shares can also be ordered from that link
• Pedigree link is below

5.Pedigree-Navalha