An explosive gallop along Southland’s Oreti Beach was enough to convince Invercargill trainer Sabin Kirkland that in Zacinto gelding Sea Shepherd (NZ), he might have something special on his hands.
Sea Shepherd had already won an Ashburton trial in late July but it was the training gallop at Oreti Beach earlier this month that had Kirkland straight on the phone to his co-owner in the horse, Janine Dunlop.
“I told her the only thing that could have overtaken him would have been Burt Munro,” Kirkland said in reference to the famous Invercargill motorcyclist.
“We had a fairly good opinion of him before we took him to Ashburton for the trials and he showed what he could do that day. He won by a length but there was seven lengths back to one of Michael Pitman’s that I know he has a pretty good opinion of.
“It was the fastest trial of the day. He’s out of a Falkirk mare and he’s just a nice horse. He’s got a lot going for him and we’re very pleased with him.”
Sea Shepherd will make his debut in Saturday’s Cochrane’s Of Canterbury (1200m) at Ashburton, a three-year-old maiden, a race Kirkland is hoping could become his first step on a path towards the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton on November 6.
“He’s still a bit green but they’ll all probably be a bit like that. Hopefully he’ll be good enough to run in the first three and we’ll start making plans from there,” Kirkland said.
“Ideally, he could head back to Ashburton for the Barneswood Farm Stakes (Gr.3, 1400m) or the nice three-year-old race (Gr.3 War Decree Stakes over 1600m on October 23) at Riccarton but definitely the long-term aim is the 2000 Guineas. We’re definitely aiming higher than winning a maiden at Winton anyway.”
Kirkland bought Sea Shepherd as a yearling for $17,000 out of the draft of Mansfield Farm at the South Island Sale before offering him for resale under Dunlop’s Phoenix Park banner at the Ready To Run Sale of Two-Year-olds at Karaka, where he was passed in on a reserve of $25,000.
“He didn’t make his reserve and Janine said ‘he’s a nicer horse than that’ so we kept him to race. He ran one of the top 10 fastest breeze-up times and there have been a few guys interested in him since the trials but we’ll see what happens,” Kirkland said.
Kirkland, who has been unable to train at Oreti Beach under lockdown Level 4 restrictions, has sent the horse north to Stuart and Amanda Higgings at Ashburton for Saturday’s race, having spent three days on the ocean in his main job as a fisherman.
He has another talented three-year-old waiting in the wings too, Dalghar gelding Buoyant running out a six-length 600m trial winner at Ashburton last month.
