Promising gelding Regazzo (NZ) (Tavistock) broke through for his maiden win at Te Rapa on Sunday when victorious in The Patron’s 1400.
The Shaune Ritchie and Colm Murray-trained four-year-old pleased his conditioners last season when runner-up in the Listed Gingernuts Salver (2400m) at Ellerslie and they were happy to see him go one better last weekend.
“He’s a magnificent looking horse, he’s certainly very handsome,” Ritchie said.
“He showed plenty of promise as a three-year-old, he ran second in the Salver to White Noise.
“We considered him as a horse we’d get to a New Zealand Derby (Gr.1, 2400m) but he’s had two operations since his last start in April.
“He was making a little bit of a gurgling noise, so he had surgery for a wind issue and we gelded him as well.
“He’s a Tavistock out of a Zabeel mare, so he’s got a Cup horse’s cross there.
“He’s thrown very much to the Zabeel side, he’s a beautiful bay with black points and he’s not heavy.”
Ritchie didn’t hold any concerns with the Heavy8 track on Sunday and expected a good showing from his charge.
“He carries himself super well which is why we thought he’d probably handle the track a bit off and he won well,” Ritchie said.
“From his draw (11) he was stuck three-wide without cover and he was probably the strongest late.”
Ritchie now holds loftier ambitions with Regazzo.
“He won’t be running round for $15,000 again. We’ll run him at the premier meetings or the $30,000 races from this point onwards,” he said.
“We’ll just try and bank as much money as we can to get through the grades from this point onwards.
“We see him as a Cups horse over the summer and if he progresses that way it’s going to be exciting.
“He’ll take his place at either Waikato or Hastings towards the end of the month on one of those better days and we’ll keep him to the Saturday racing after that and see how far we can get, but I am tipping he will go far.”
Ritchie was also pleased with the maiden success of Goldburg (NZ) (Burgundy) at Cambridge last week.
“He’s a nice horse, he’s out of Goldminer and she won 10 races,” Ritchie said. “He’s shown us plenty of promise as well. He’s going to head to Hastings for that $50,000 MAAT race on the second day at the end of the month.
“That’ll tell us a lot more because it’s usually a pretty strong race.
“He’s not ready for a Hawke’s Bay Guineas (Gr.2, 1400m) yet but if he can be competitive in that then we’ll have a look at something stronger from there. He holds a nomination for the 2000 Guineas (Gr.1, 1600m) but there is a bit of water to go under the bridge yet.”
While Ritchie won’t have any runners on the first day of the Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival, he is looking forward to heading north to Whangarei to line-up The Racketeer (NZ) (Proisir) over 1200m.
“I’ve got another horse we’ve got a bit of time for called The Racketeer, I’m going to run him at Whangarei because of the state of the tracks basically,” Ritchie said.
“We know if we go to Whangarei, even if they don’t handle the surface, they never have gut-busting runs because it doesn’t get deep enough for them to do that.
“He’ll have his first run as a three-year old there, and Hail Damage will go up with him.”
