Former pinhooking prospects Seamsew (Brazen Beau) and Lhasa (Hellbent) will go head-to-head at Cambridge’s synthetic meeting on Wednesday in the Magnum Industries 1300.
Lyndhurst Farm principals Mark and Shelley Treweek purchased both geldings as weanlings with the aim of reoffering them as yearlings, however, a series of events resulted in both remaining in their care and the couple are now enjoying racing the pair.
“We bought Seamsew as a weanling and we went to the yearling sales and didn’t sell him, so we headed to the breeze-ups,” trainer Mark Treweek said.
“He breezed-up really well and we had a lot of interest in him but then he came up with some issues on his knees so we withdrew him and have just carried on to race him ourselves.
“We bought Lhasa as a weanling and he was going through the Magic Millions sale. He didn’t scope up too well at the sale, he had chondritis, so we brought him home.
“We entered him for the breeze-up sale, but he still had a lot of scar tissue in his throat at that stage, so we ended up withdrawing him and racing him.”
Both horses have won a race apiece, with Seamsew clearing maiden ranks last start when winning first-up over 970m at Cambridge.
“I am really happy with him. He has come up well and raced well fresh,” Treweek said.
“He runs well on the synthetic. They work on it a fair bit, so they are quite used to it. He has had problems with his knees, so we just keep him on a regular surface as we can, it is nice and consistent.
“We have got a water treadmill at home, so he goes on that a lot too. It is good to keep off his back a bit as well. He seems to enjoy it.
“He has raced well on turf as well, but it is just getting the right track for him.
“He has drawn well (2), which is good and bad for him. He is a big horse, so he needs a bit of room. There is a query on the 1300 too, he is probably more a 1000-1200m horse, but on the synthetic they get across it fairly easy, so we are just hoping the 1300m won’t be a problem for him.”
Lhasa was fourth fresh-up over 1100m at Ruakaka earlier this month and Treweek believes he will be tough to roll this week.
“He goes really well. He is a year younger of course. He is quite a light-framed horse and we just try and race him a little bit sparingly,” he said.
“He tries hard and has shown a fair amount of ability. He was very unlucky first-up and he has won on the synthetic before at the trip. We think he will be very hard to beat.”
Treweek is enjoying training his team of two and has elected to bypass preparing a draft for this year’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale, but will have representation at the yearling sales in January.
“We got down to very small drafts of just doing our own over the last three of four years,” he said.
“We don’t do the big drafts for yearling sales or breeze-ups anymore. With the two racehorses we thought we would take the year off and take another look at it next year.
“We have got five at this stage for Karaka (in January) – two fillies and three colts.”
