Jake doubles up at Te Aroha

It’s been a lucrative couple of weeks for promising jumper Jake.

The five-year-old gelding broke through for his maiden victory on the flat at New Plymouth earlier this month and nine days later scored his second hurdle triumph when taking out The Helen Sanson Open Hurdle (3100m) at Te Aroha on Sunday for trainers Peter and Jessica Brosnan.

Under heavy rain, jockey Corey Wiles kept Jake out of trouble at the back of the pack for most of the journey, and the pair still had all before them with 800m to go. Wiles then asked his charge to improve and he quickly swept around several tiring runners, and he set aim at the frontrunners.

Wiles launched an attack five wide when rounding the final bend and Jake entered a duel with Hidalgo down the home straight. While Jake stumbled over the final hurdle, he regathered himself and ran away in the concluding stages to win by half a length.

“It was a pretty tough effort considering the conditions,” Peter Brosnan said. “He mucked the last jump up, but we were rapt with the result. It was a good, strong effort.”

Brosnan said Jake had thrived since his maiden flat triumph and he was relatively confident heading into Sunday, although he did share concerns about the heavy nature of the track.

“He had come through his race the other day well and he was ready to go,” he said. “We didn’t know how he would handle the real Heavy conditions, but he obviously does, and that was our only concern.”

The Brosnans have now set their sights on bigger targets at Te Aroha later this year with Jake.

“Ultimately, we would like to have him ready for the end of the year at the big Te Aroha meeting, with the (Pakuranga) Hunt Hurdle and Great New Zealand Hurdle, which will be his goals.”

Stablemate Auld Jock made his first jumping appearance for nearly two years in the same race at Te Aroha but felt the testing conditions and was ultimately pulled up by jockey Bella Oliver.

A placegetter in the 2024 editions of the Great Northern Steeplechase (6400m) and Grand National Steeplechase (5600m), Auld Jock has subsequently been kept to the flat.

While Brosnan admitted he would have liked to have seen more from his gelding on Sunday, he said he has come through the race well and he will now go back chasing.

“He seems fine, he just ran out of puff, so we will have a look at something in a couple of weeks for him,” Brosnan said. “When he was tired, he had had enough, so she (Oliver) did the right thing and pulled him up to save him for another day.

“It would have been good to see him go a little bit better, but it is just a starting point, we just had to start somewhere.

“He will probably go chasing next time.”

Later on the card, Brosnan was proud of the front-running performance of stablemate Jakama Krystal in the W L Robinson Livestock Steeplechase (3500m), with the mare sticking on for a gallant third place finish.

“She went super,” Brosnan said. “She tried hard and we are very happy with her.

“She is probably not quite good enough to go against the open horses, so we will probably have to look for another restricted steeplechase somewhere. She is just one stage away from those topline jumpers, but she is an honest, little horse.”