Crosswell impresses on debut
Trainer John Wheeler has high hopes for his promising juvenile Crosswell (NZ) (The Bold One) after he won impressively on debut in the CLAAS Harvest Centre Maiden 2YO (1200m) at Hawera on Sunday.
Wheeler trained his dam, Enchanted Lady (NZ) (Per Incanto), and while she only had the one start due to soundness issues, the Taranaki horseman rated her highly and he believes she has passed on her talent to Crosswell.
“She (Enchanted Lady) was a very fast horse, probably one of the fastest horses I have ever trained, but I couldn’t keep her sound,” Wheeler said.
“I suggested to the guy that owns her, who is a good friend of mine, ‘Tommy, we have got to send her to a cheap horse and see if she can reproduce herself’. We sent her to The Bold One and we got him, and hopefully he can go on to be a good horse.”
While Crosswell impressed Wheeler early on, he has had behavioural issues, and following an unplaced trial over 850m at Foxton in March, he jumped a $31 outsider on Sunday.
Wheeler’s expectations matched the odds, and he was pleasantly surprised to see his charge on his best behaviour, and he performed accordingly, winning by a length over The Armorer (NZ) (Armory).
“We thought he was a pretty good horse, but he is quite a naughty horse, so we didn’t have great hopes because he does a lot of things wrong just in his day-to-day work,” Wheeler said.
“We thought he was liable to do that on raceday too but other than being a bit slow to load up in the barrier, he did everything right and consequently he won the race. He drew the outside too, which made it even better.
“It was a super run and he is a horse with a fair bit of ability.”
With a juvenile win under his belt, Wheeler said he is inclined to tip Crosswell out for a spell over winter in preparation for a spring three-year-old campaign.
“I haven’t got any plans with him as yet,” Wheeler said. “We will just see how he comes through this race, we may give him another race, but I am intending to turn him out in the next two or three weeks and I will prepare him for three-year-old racing.”
Wheeler also recorded a runner-up result with stablemate Scotty (NZ) (Zed) earlier on the card in the Egmont Tyres Maiden High Weight (2100m), and he said the Zed gelding is in line for a jumping career.
“He went well,” Wheeler said. “He went to the jumping trials today (Monday) and went well, I am pretty happy with him.”
With jumps racing now underway, Wheeler is excited about the prospects of Red Ned (NZ) (Zed) in some of the prestige jumps races following his resuming run over hurdles in the Wanganui Insurance Brokers Open Hurdle (3000m) earlier this month where he was runner-up behind Never Look Back (NZ) (Shocking).
“I am looking forward to the Grand National and those sort of races with Red Ned, I think he should be a star,” Wheeler said.
