Hay to hit cups trail
TRAINERDRIVER John Hay has his sights on more southern cups with Mighty Santana after the pacer’s Gore Cup win.
The 5yrold scored a comfortable frontrunning win in the 2700m feature yesterday.
‘‘We might look at the Invercargill Cup now and then the Northern Southland Cup,’’ Hay said.
‘‘He has got very high speed. He can run a 54sec or 55sec 800m — like you have to these days — and he had got a bit of toughness.
‘‘He has got the allround game at the moment.
‘‘It is a big step up to the good horses, so we will find out how good he is then.’’
Hay races Mighty Santana with Peter Cates, whom he describes as a good friend and neighbour at Ashburton.
Cates also enjoyed a victory with Son Of Tiger at Westport on Tuesday.
‘‘He has been a good owner of mine. He lives around the corner from me.
‘‘He lost his wife, Jocelyn, in the winter [July], so this will be a good tonic for him. And he had a win on the Coast yesterday.
‘‘He will be watching at home and the whole family will be having a wine there and they’ll be enjoying it.’’
Mighty Santana signalled to Hay he was ready to run a big race in his previous start at Winton when he powered home wide on the track after starting from barrier 8 behind the mobile.
‘‘He went super at Winton the other day. He didn’t get the best steer by me.
‘‘He went a 55sec [800m] around them and he was five and six wide around them.
‘‘I was pretty confident if he got the front today and he made a super beginning he would be hard to beat.
‘‘That is the first time ever in front. He sat parked in his first win.
‘‘He is just a really nice horse,’’ Hay said.
The first three placegetters in the Gore Cup raced along the markers.
The trailing horse, Bettor Enforce, was nosed out of second placing by Mr Kiwi, who raced three deep.
The favourite, Kilowatt Kid, ran in to heavy contact with surrounding runners when searching for a gap in the run home.
Driver Brad Williamson was spectacularly lifted out of his seat during the incident.
Williamson did not need to search for any gaps when guiding Get Lucky and Majestic Man to trotting wins yesterday.
Get Lucky set a track record for 3yrold trotters over 2200m when winning race 4.
The Alister Blacktrained squaregaiter’s 252.8 time took 0.5sec off the previous mark, held by Brads Kenny.
Williamson steered Majestic Man to victory in race 7, the feature trot.
The trotter had an epic battle with the gallant runnerup, War Admiral.