Allpress back on the stakes-winning bus

Lisa Allpress is back in the stakes-winning groove, steering the Tony Pike-trained Back Of The Bus to victory in Thursday's Listed Phils Electrical & Gipsy Caravans Ryder Stakes (1200m) at Otaki, less than three weeks after returning from an 18-month injury-enforced absence.

Back Of The Bus had already shown plenty of ability over winter, winning The Lawn Shed Winter Series – 2YO Final (1200m) at Ellerslie last month and placed in the Listed Castletown Stakes (1200m) at Otaki earlier this month, and Pike was confident of another bold effort when returning to the Kapiti Coast track on Thursday.

Jumping from barrier six in the eight-horse field, Allpress stoked up her charge early to sit outside leader Rising Moon. Turning for home, Back Of The Bus got her nose in front, but Allpress resisted to go for the persuader until hitting the 200m mark, and Back Of The Bus rallied again to see off the late challenge of Midnight Dart to win by a head, with a further long head back to Rising Moon in third.

Allpress was full of praise for Back Of The Bus’ brave effort.

“She tried really hard,” she said. “I was thinking back to the previous races and watching jockeys go for home way to soon, so I was thinking ‘wait’. It was just a matter of when to let those brakes off. I could hear them coming behind, so I knew they were right there, and just tried to hold it together to get to the line.

“She went a really nice race last time here, she just got a little bit held up at the top of the straight and found the line huge.

“Tony spoke to me before (the race) and said to try and be outside the leader and she should be fit enough to get through it (Heavy10 track).”

Watching the race from Cambridge, Pike was delighted to end the season with a stakes victory.

“She is a really tough and brave filly,” Pike said. “She has been consistent all season and has done a really good job, winning the series final at Ellerslie, third in the Castletown and now a stakes win in the Ryder.

“I couldn’t have asked for much more this prep, she has done a good job for a cheap purchase.”

Pike bought Back Of The Bus out of Wentwood Grange’s 2025 New Zealand Bloodstock Online Yearling Sale draft for $25,000, and she has proven to be an astute purchase.

“We had a look through the online sale and picked out two or three horses,” Pike said. “We bought one, and she was actually passed in, and we had a couple of owners that were looking for some small shares in a cheaper filly and we purchased her a few days after the sale.

“We went over and had a look at her and she was very well put together, hence the name my wife named her – she had an arse like the back of a bus.

“We bought her for $25,000 and we have got a couple of new owners in her and an existing owner, and they have had a great run. I am sure they will be over the moon with the preparation that she has had.”

Pike is pleased to have earned a black-type win with his filly so early in her career, which will cement her future career as a broodmare.

“She is out of a family I know reasonably well. She is out of a half-sister to Witz End, a good old Trelawney family, so with a couple of wins and a stakes win under her belt now she has got a good enough pedigree to carry forward to stud when that time comes,” he said.

A brief freshen-up now awaits Back Of The Bus before a likely return for some early three-year-old stakes targets in the spring.

“It was the intention to be the last run of her prep, she has been up a fair while,” Pike said. “We will just have a look at what is coming up around the three-year-old races and how she pulls up.

“She probably prefers just a bit of easing in the ground, so we could possibly give her a short freshen-up and then possibly look at the early spring three-year-old fillies races before they start stretching up over a trip.”

Meanwhile, Pike will head to Ruakaka with just the one runner on Saturday, but it could be enough to bring home a winner’s cheque, with his representative Ashoka in a purple patch of form.

The rising four-year-old gelding has finished runner-up in four of his last five runs, and Pike is hopeful he can go one better this weekend when he contests the Harcourts Just Rentals (1300m).

“He is really due a win, he has run really well without a lot of luck in his last few runs,” Pike said. “He gave them too far a start last start over 1200m at Ruakaka but closed the race off really strongly late, so if he can get an ounce of luck from that draw (14), he should be hard to beat.”