To say that English Gambler (Casino Prince) has been a challenge for Cambridge trainer Lauren Brennan – and his riders – would be a massive understatement.
But the seven-year-old’s talent is such that he could establish himself as a top-class hurdler this winter, starting with Saturday’s Manawatu ITM Awapuni Hurdle (2900m) at Trentham, and possibly earn a trip back to Australia.
English Gambler showed enough in his first six starts on the flat for Brennan in 2018 that he was sold to head to Australia, where he never settled in and was unable to win in 10 starts.
He returned to Brennan in 2020 and she was able to resurrect his career with some careful training.
“We put up with him because we know him so well and we know he’s got ability, but he’s not everyone’s cup of tea,” Brennan said.
“He’s a very headstrong horse, and he’s been like that since he was a two-year-old. If we were to train him on the track every day he would just bolt for two laps.
“So we do a lot of road work with him, we go to a farm in Cambridge with hills and do hill work once a week, and we go out in the middle of the grass in Cambridge. Basically we stay away from the track.”
After a couple more wins on the flat upon his return to New Zealand, English Gambler was sent hurdling in spring 2021 and made an immediate impact.
In his two hurdle races, both at Te Aroha, the headstrong gelding was allowed to race freely and he established huge leads early in both. In his first nobody could catch him and he won by 8-1/2 lengths, while in the second, as subsequent Great Northern Hurdle runner-up Dr Hank (NZ) (Redwood) came up to challenge him at the last hurdle, he didn’t lift his legs and dislodged his rider.
“My husband Michael, who was a professional jumps jockey in England, is the only one that schools him because of the way the horse is, and he came back in the other morning and said ‘in my younger days I would be begging to get on a horse like this’,” Brennan said.
“He’s a very nice jumper and he really attacks his fences when he does jump.”
Brennan brought English Gambler back to the stable at the beginning of the year and slowly put the work into him. He returned to the track at Matamata April 20, where he finished second to Taika.
The winter plan is to aim him at the Awapuni Hurdle this weekend, the Waikato Hurdle (3200m) on June 18, and the Hawke’s Bay Hurdle (3100m) on July 2.
If he goes well in those, there is a chance English Gambler could be set for some jumping targets across the Tasman.
“Because he’s half-owned in Australia by Roll The Dice Racing, they’re quite keen to see him in Australia if he’s going to come up to the mark over here,” Brennan said.
“If he does, we’d bring him over for a hit-and-run type mission ourselves. It all depends on how he goes – he’s going to have to be extremely competitive in these three races we are targeting. We’ll know more after Saturday.”
Hamish McNeill, who rode English Gambler at Matamata on April 20, will ride him at Trentham.
Apart from English Gambler, Brennan’s team is likely to be fairly light over winter. Among those likely to be campaigning are Darci’s Queen (NZ) (Darci Brahma), a maiden winner at Avondale on Anzac Day, and a group of two-year-olds. Brennan had four two-year-olds trial at Avondale last week, two of which were winners – an Iffraaj gelding and a Turn Me Loose gelding.
Meanwhile, Brennan’s two good open-class gallopers Packing Rockstar (Fastnet Rock) and Vigor Winner (Declaration of War) have just returned to the stable after a two-month break, getting ready for spring targets, possibly in Hastings.
Packing Rockstar and Vigor Winner both have ratings in the 90s, which can make them difficult to place in New Zealand, so there is a chance they could also head to Australia in spring.
“I wouldn’t go over and target any of the big races – we’d have a look at some of those lower tier races which still have good prizemoney up for them,” she said.
“It all depends on the weather – Australia’s weather conditions have been pretty wet in Sydney and Queensland. We were thinking of taking Packing Rockstar to Queensland but thank God we didn’t. He wouldn’t have gone a yard in it.”
