El Pescado
Trish Dunell
Injury plagued galloper El Pescado provided a timely reminder of his undoubted ability as he trounced his open handicap rivals over 1400 metres at Rotorua on Saturday.
Despite being unsighted since an unplaced run in the Gr. 2 Rich Hill Mile on New Year's Day, the El Hermano five-year-old was sent out favourite in the Warren Stinton Sprint and didn't disappoint as he looped his rivals with 700 metres to run before jogging to the line untouched to win by a conservative five length margin.
Rider Cameron Lammas barely moved on his charge and was rightly impressed with the effort that provided him with his 600th career riding victory.
"He was the best horse in the race and he was travelling all the way so I just let him do his own thing," he said.
"If something had challenged him I could have let him throttle back but he was just far too good for them."
Part owner Frank Drummond mixed delight with a great deal of relief after the race as he discussed the future plans for the gelding.
"He's a lot of fun but he has had problems with his feet and I thought he was very vulnerable today," he admitted.
"I'm very relieved to see him do that as we didn't know whether he would handle the ground but we had to have a run somewhere.
"We got a bit ambitious and put in some big nominations for him at Hawkes Bay so hopefully now we can go there with some confidence."
Drummond and wife Faye race the gelding who they bred from their stallion El Hermano who stands at the couple's Cheval Park base. The victory was El Pescado's fifth from a 15 start career to date and sees him currently placed in 24th position in the order of entry for the first Group One event of the new season, the Makfi Challenge Stakes at Hastings on the 27th of August. - NZ Racing Desk
Despite being unsighted since an unplaced run in the Gr. 2 Rich Hill Mile on New Year's Day, the El Hermano five-year-old was sent out favourite in the Warren Stinton Sprint and didn't disappoint as he looped his rivals with 700 metres to run before jogging to the line untouched to win by a conservative five length margin.
Rider Cameron Lammas barely moved on his charge and was rightly impressed with the effort that provided him with his 600th career riding victory.
"He was the best horse in the race and he was travelling all the way so I just let him do his own thing," he said.
"If something had challenged him I could have let him throttle back but he was just far too good for them."
Part owner Frank Drummond mixed delight with a great deal of relief after the race as he discussed the future plans for the gelding.
"He's a lot of fun but he has had problems with his feet and I thought he was very vulnerable today," he admitted.
"I'm very relieved to see him do that as we didn't know whether he would handle the ground but we had to have a run somewhere.
"We got a bit ambitious and put in some big nominations for him at Hawkes Bay so hopefully now we can go there with some confidence."
Drummond and wife Faye race the gelding who they bred from their stallion El Hermano who stands at the couple's Cheval Park base. The victory was El Pescado's fifth from a 15 start career to date and sees him currently placed in 24th position in the order of entry for the first Group One event of the new season, the Makfi Challenge Stakes at Hastings on the 27th of August. - NZ Racing Desk
