Snazzytavi leads Cambridge Stud's Boxing Day racing triumph

“She is such a talented mare and now, eventually, we have time to start thinking about Australia with her because after two Group 1s here a big Australian win is the only way left to increase her value to the stud.”

Co-trainer Graham Richardson says that road to the Australia Cup in late March will most likely run through the Herbie Dyke at her favourite track at Te Rapa in February.

It took every inch of jockey Warren Kennedy’s timing and skill to get Snazzytavi up as she tracked La Crique throughout the race. She looked set to run past until her fellow mare fought doggedly. Either would have been a worthy winner.

But there was a sense of occasion in Snazzytavi’s performance as it capped a magical day with two earlier wins important for different reasons.

Debutante juvenile Remala powered past Belle Du Monde to give Cambridge Stud’s stallion Hello Youmzain his first New Zealand winner after an impressive first season in Europe.

“That means so much to us, not only commercially but for all those breeders who have backed our faith in him [Hello Youmzain],” says Lindsay.

“To have a stallion we think so much of winning with one of our 2-year-olds on a major day is very special. And we share that with all of those people and anybody who has a Hello Youmazin in the paddock or a mare in foal to him.”

Remala is eligible for the Karaka Millions and can now head straight to the $1 million 2-year-old feature on January 25 as a serious hope in what looks to be one of its most open editions.

The Cambridge Stud treble was made possible by About Time’s middle leg winning the Dunstan Horsefeeds Stayers Championship, paying back trainer Lance Noble for the patience he showed this time last year.

She won the Group 2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes at Pukekohe last New Year’s Day and Noble had the option to take her down a New Zealand Oaks path but he chose not to, thinking she was too immature to cop that campaign.

“Lance was great letting up on her last season and she has strengthened enough to handle the 2400m today,” says Kennedy.

About Time will eventually join Cambridge Stud’s broodmare band which has been so enormously replenished since the Lindsays bought the business.

The real fruits of those plans, and today’s success, are in reality years away.

1: Warren Kennedy’s treble including the Group 1 with Snazzytavi. Caps a magic year for the Wizard of Waz.

2: Courtney Barnes’ ride on Hitabell in the Hallmark Stud Eight Carat Classic. Held her ground in an early rush and was strong to the line.

3: Hello Youmzain siring Remala to win the juvenile race. First-season sires get a huge boost for winners on the biggest days, especially before the yearling sales.

4: Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott continue their golden summer with a double, Smokescreen and a super training performance with Grande Gallo.

5: Pennine Way’s win for trainer Ross McCarroll. Perfectly timed and with a late bloomer who could still be a serious stayer.

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.