Potentially perfect sendoff for Prince Turbo
Quality jumper Prince Turbo (NZ) (Alamosa) may have finished his racing career in perfect fashion at Woodville on Sunday when winning the Grant Squires Building Tararua Steeplechase (4800m).
The Kevin Myers-trained gelding ran fourth in the Pakuranga Hunt Cup (4300m) at Te Aroha on Thursday, but showed no signs of fatigue when backing up three days later.
In form jumper Saint Bernard was backed into a $1.80 favourite following his victory over Prince Turbo at Woodville last month, and jockey Hamish McNeill took luck out of the equation and rode his charge from the front on Sunday.
Jockey Kylan Wiles was content to sit midfield aboard Prince Turbo before asking him to improve with a lap to go, and his charge soon ranged up alongside the leader.
Saint Bernard responded to the attack and the pair quickly opened up several margins on their rivals down the back straight.
The pressure finally began to tell on Saint Bernard, and Prince Turbo entered the home straight in the lead. Saint Bernard remained resolute and continued to fight, but Prine Turbo’s staying qualities told in the end and he ran out a 1-1/2 length victor, with a further 5-1/4 lengths back to Uncle Charlie in third.
Stable representative Jason Myers believed Wiles’ aggressive tactics proved a masterstroke.
“I think with the jump not being at the 600m anymore, you couldn’t afford to let Saint Bernard get away because he has probably got a bit more toe than him on the flat, but it worked out well,” he said.
Now a 12-year-old, Sunday’s triumph may have been Prince Turbo’s last start, with New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing enforcing the mandatory retirement for all jumps racing horses after December 31 of their 12-year-old year.
However, he could be given one more outing in the Ben & Ryan Foote Racing Great New Zealand Steeplechase (6200m) at Te Aroha in a fortnight.
“He is a 12-year-old now, so that could be his last one,” Myers said. “If he was 100 percent he might run in the Northern. But that could be him going out on top.”
It would be a fitting sendoff for the iron horse, who won two of his 52 starts on the flat and posted another four steeplechase victories, and earned just shy of $250,000.
While a prestige jumps title eluded him, Prince Turbo was runner-up behind West Coast in the 2023 Grand National Steeplechase (5600m), and he proved to be in the form of his career this year, finishing runner-up behind Lord Spencer in the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase (4800m) in July before placing behind the JJ Rayner-trained gelding in the Grand National Steeplechase last month.
It proved to be a fruitful day at Woodville for Kevin Myers, who won half of the eight-race card, including So Call Me (NZ) (Sweynesse) and Carginan (NZ) Roc dec Cambes) in the Jude Challies Property Brokers Tararua Hurdles (3000m) and Tararua Hedge Cutting Hurdle (3000m) respectively, while Winter Rose (NZ) (Darci Brahma) capped the day on a winning note in the Coppermine Contracting (1600m).
