New Zealand breds win the opening races at Warrnambool
Ciaron Maher wasted no time making his mark on the Warrnambool May Carnival, combining with Steven Pateman to win the opening event with progressive five-year-old Ongatiti (NZ) (Sweynesse).
The Novara Park bred stayer, having his first campaign over hurdles, enjoyed the perfect run in transit behind outsider Lucky Chance before Pateman set him alight before the home turn.
From there, the well-backed favourite quickly put the race to bed, careering away to score by 10 lengths over local hope Shamarkand, with Sirius Black in third.
Maher was quick to suggest the win could be just the beginning for the raw jumper.
“He’s such a big, raw horse and he’s still putting it all together,” Maher said.
“Hopefully, he’ll have a lot more May carnivals to come.
“It was a pretty easy watch. We’ve started the right way.”
Pateman was similarly upbeat about the gelding’s long-term prospects.
“He’s a really nice, young, progressive jumper,” he said.
“He’s just going to get better and better.”
Andy Win (NZ) (Almanzor) got a hard-fought victory in the second maiden hurdle at Warrnambool.
The gelding was buried away for much of the journey before jockey Tom Ryan was able to ease him into the clear approaching the home turn.
Trainer Shane Jackson said the horse had returned a more furnished jumper this preparation.
“Maybe it was just time was all he needed,” Jackson said.
“He came back and he blossomed and he’s been jumping very, very well.”
Ryan admitted the run had not unfolded as planned, but praised the gelding for fighting it out strongly late.
“I was locked away on the inside and nowhere to go and I didn’t want to be there at all,” he said.
“I wanted to be a bit closer.
“I got driven wide on the bend, which is never a good thing around here, but to be fair to my horse, he jumped the last well and battled all the way to the line.”
Andy Win was sold by Carlaw Park at the 2021 Karaka Weanling Sale to Prima Park and won a race at Matamata for Kelly Van Dyk before being sold to Australia.
