Astoria Brooke takes out Te Awamutu Cup

Trelawney Stud’s Brent and Cherry Taylor will head to the All Blacks game in Christchurch tonight with a spring in their step following their mare Astoria Brooke’s (NZ) (American Pharoah) victory in the UBP Te Awamutu Cup (1600m) at Te Rapa.

The daughter of American Pharoah was given a beautiful trip in the one-one by jockey Michael McNab before he presented her three wide when turning for home and she showed a good turn of foot to reel in the frontrunners and dash away to a 1-1/2 length victory over Rudyard (NZ) (Charm Spirit).

The Tony Pike-trained mare was dropping back from stakes company, having finished sixth in last Saturday’s Listed Tauranga Classic (1400m), and Pike’s racing manager Ryan Stacey was upbeat about her chances this weekend.

“We had a lot of confidence because her run at Tauranga wasn’t disgraceful at all, she was in black-type company and I thought she put in a really good performance, and she backed it up in her track work this week,” Stacey said.

“It was a gun ride by Michael - she jumped and got into a nice position. I thought there was decent enough speed and I was really happy coming around that turn.”

Astoria Brooke has now won five of her 17 starts to date and earned more than $121,000 in prizemoney.

Earlier on the card, the Jenna Mahoney-trained Reward Smile (Havana Grey) scored his third win in New Zealand when victorious in the Group One Turf Bar Sprint (1200m) in the hands of Masa Hashizume.

The British-bred son of Havana Grey enjoyed an economical trip in the trail throughout before Hashizume peeled him off leader Cleat’s (NZ) (Rios) back and got to the front with 200m to go, and he held off the late challenge of Little Bit Of Love (NZ) (Time Test) to win by half a length.

“He is a really honest horse and always tries 100 percent,” Mahoney said. “He was just a little bit fat first-up but we knew we would get a good result today. He is always better second up, being a bit older he needs a couple of runs to get fit.”

Mahoney doesn’t have any set plans for Reward Smile but said he is thriving on the Soft tracks that the mild winter is currently providing.

“When the tracks get a bit firm he feels them, but he is better on this in-between, so it (Soft7 track) was ideal for him today,” Mahoney said.

“We will just tick him through late winter and early spring and see where we go, he has definitely got a few wins left in him.”

Reward Smile initially raced in his native Britain, where he won one race, before he continued his racing career in Hong Kong, where he added another two victories to his tally.

His career record now stands at six wins from 35 starts, with more than $1.3 million in earnings.