Latest news with #Velocious
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Velocious aims for Aussie success in Listed Queensland race
Velocious will contest the Listed Queensland Day Stakes at Eagle Farm on Saturday. Photo / Kenton Wright Race Images By Paul Vettise, News Desk Velocious will bid to add Australian black type to her impressive domestic record when she steps out at Eagle Farm on Saturday. The Stephen Marsh-trained daughter of Written Tycoon will run in the Listed U & U Queensland Day Stakes (1200m) with multiple Group
NZ Herald
24-05-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Velocious wins Te Rapa sprint feature and now has Brisbane race in sight
Group 1 winner Velocious bounced back to her brilliant best in the Jarvis Trading (1100m) at Te Rapa on Saturday, raising the possibility of a transtasman mission. The Stephen Marsh-trained filly was New Zealand's champion 2-year-old last season, when she won four of her six starts including the Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) and the Group 1 Sistema Stakes (1200m). Her 3-year-old season has been an up-and-down journey for her connections. There was a wind operation in the spring, then a smart first-up win at Te Aroha in March, then a luckless run in the Group 3 Cambridge Breeders' Stakes (1200m) and a disappointing fifth after a costly slow start at Ellerslie last Saturday. Marsh and owners Go Racing decided to roll the dice and run Velocious in Saturday's $40,000 sprint feature on a seven-day turnaround, and the gamble paid off. Velocious jumped much better and her jockey Michael McNab took up a handy position in third along the fence as Shoes and Illicit Dreams showed the way through the early stages.
NZ Herald
16-05-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Velocious gets ideal opportunity at Ellerslie to make up for lost season
Which is one reason Velocious heads there today. 'It is her favourite track, she has won a Group 1 and a Karaka Millions there,' says Marsh. 'We are looking at Australia with her, there is a race in Brisbane on June 7 that would suit her but obviously she would need to race well this weekend. 'I think she will. Forget last start when things didn't go her way, she will go a lot better on Saturday.' Velocious (R6, No 1) could hardly come into today's set weights and penalty race better off, carrying only 1kg more than horses just out of maidens even though she is a Group 1 winner of nearly $1 million. She gets the right barrier to settle handy and if she is going to be heading to Sunshine State she would want to be at least paying a dividend today. While that potential trip explains why last season's Juvenile of the Year is racing in a normal race in mid-May, Marsh says there is a different reason Bourbon Empress is a surprise acceptor for the open 1400m today. Already the winner of the Group 2 Rich Hill Mile this season, Bourbon Empress would usually be enjoying her autumn spell before chasing spring Group 1s but Marsh says her appetite is the issue. 'She is such a big, strong mare who does so well we thought if we gave her a long spell, she would do too well and it would be really hard to get the weight off her. 'So she will have one or run races now to tick her over and we haven't totally ruled out her popping over to Australia for a race either.' A horse who has travelled the other way across the Tasman is one Marsh suggests could provide a good start to the day, in a rare opening-race run before noon. 'Hakushu has a lot of ability and actually went to Australia but never raced there,' explains Marsh. 'He is better than maiden grade.' The Cambridge trainer is also campaigning Super Photon (R4, No 1) in a A$150,000 ($163,500) race at Flemington today, up against good mate Andrew Forsman, who has Yaldi in the same race. 'I think Flemington will suit him and I can't believe the odds he is [$34] considering he beat the older horses last start,' says Marsh. Marsh is locked in a battle for the title of New Zealand's leading black-type trainer, with 17 wins at that level, the same as the Walker/Bergerson stable but the latter have the favourite Towering Vision (R4, No 1) in today's $100,000 Skycity Champagne Stakes at Ellerslie. While Marsh may also ultimately have to settle for his usual second on the trainer's premiership as he sits 20 wins behind Walker/Bergerson, he is still proud of his best-ever season, especially at black-type level. 'The staff have done an amazing job and we have had great support from owners,' he says. 'That has enabled us to go to the yearling sales and buy the horses we want and this year we have bought 16 yearlings, which is a lot for us. 'But we have almost sold all of them, with only a couple of small shares in horses who didn't cost a lot of money left but I'd imagine that would go pretty quickly. 'With the huge stake increases in New Zealand and Australia right next door, we realise there is a golden opportunity and we want to make the most of it and take new owners along for the ride.' Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald's Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world's biggest horse racing carnivals.
NZ Herald
24-04-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Poetic Champion ready for Te Rapa showdown amid rain threat
Tomorrow's field brings together some of our brightest young talents, from Poetic Champion to Auckland Guineas winner Yaldi, NZB Kiwi runner Ardalio and a string of horses who would be on the shopping lists of overseas buyers if they were on the market. On top of all that comes last season's champion 2-year-old filly Velocious, who resumed with a win last start after missing most of the season with a throat issue, but was dazzling beating the older horses in her comeback race. She will try to add to trainer Stephen Marsh 's career-best black-type season and kickstart a weekend that sees him represented by El Vencedor in the HK$28 million QEII Cup in Hong Kong on Sunday. Velocious may be the horse to beat tomorrow, with barrier three ideal and enough freshness in her legs to still be potent at 1200m second up. But an interesting piece to the Breeders puzzle will be the weather, with Te Rapa expected to have dried out well over the past few days, but rain still possible tomorrow. If any rain did arrive, it would seem certain to dull Velocious, as all five of her wins have come on good tracks while she has run only one placing in three starts on soft ground, rare numbers these days when so many tracks easily fall into the Soft 5 range. But rival Cambridge trainer Pike says any rain wouldn't bother Poetic Champion, who is every bit as fast as Velocious without the record to back it up. 'He is a very good sprinter and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the Telegraph next season,' says Pike. 'We have targeted this race because we think he is better left-handed and he trialled very well a few weeks ago. 'If the rain did come, he would love it, but he will be extremely competitive regardless. But it is a very good field.' Any one of Ardalio, Yaldi, Whiskey N Roses, I'm All In or Archaic Smile could also win without surprising in what will be one of the best races of the autumn. The $150,000 Travis Stakes later in the programme brings together class mares with vastly different records, from a weight-for-age performer like Town Cryer to New Zealand Cup winner Mehzebeen and Waikato and Avondale Cups winner Blue Sky At Night. That could make tempo a major deciding factor, as a free-rolling mare like Town Cryer could be too fast for the Cups queens if she gets her own way. But if it becomes more of a stamina test, then either of the Cup winners could prevail, as could Islington Lass and Electron, the latter backing up from the Easter Handicap last Saturday. Pike has Val Di Zoldo in the Travis and she is another of the hopes, while he also suggests punters follow his debutante juvenile Argo (R4, No 3) in a race where The Espy sticks out as the only previous winner. 'And we have Witz End [R5, No 7] in the open 1400m and he is always a chance in this grade.'
