All Roads
Kenton Wright Race Images
The powerful Donna Logan and Chris Gibbs stable once again dominated on their home patch as they produced five of the eight winners at Ruakaka on Saturday.
Amongst a raft of strong performances the effort of improving gelding All Roads caught the eye as he made light of a 60 kilogram impost to score a convincing victory in rating 75 company to round out the day's proceedings.
It was a win that has Logan thinking it may be time to step the five-year-old up to better company in the coming weeks.
"He has just thrived since he has been with us and just kept on improving," she enthused.
"He had to carry a big weight but handled it really well. I think what impressed me most was just how he attacked the line in the closing stages.
"It was also a very good ride by Kelly (McCulloch) who seems to really click with him.
"That win has me thinking that he has the ability to step up again so once I get home I'm going to sit down and see what there is coming up for him.
"I also think he can get further than a mile so something over a middle distance will definitely be an option."
Logan watched the race from Hastings where she had Hasselhoof and Valley Girl engaged in the day's Group One feature. Whilst pleased with the effort of Tavistock gelding Hasselhoof she admitted she was perplexed by the run of Valley Girl.
"Hasselhoof did what we wanted from him as he was hitting the line very strongly in the last 100 metres," she said.
"He is coming along well and that run will tighten him up even further.
"On the other hand I just can't explain the effort from Valley Girl. She lugged badly from the 900 metre mark and the bit was through her mouth when she returned.
"She seemed fine when she came back to scale and her joints were all as cool as a cucumber afterwards.
"I've got a vet giving her a complete going over on Monday so if there is a problem I hope it will come out then as at the moment we are none the wiser for what went wrong." – NZ Racing Desk
Amongst a raft of strong performances the effort of improving gelding All Roads caught the eye as he made light of a 60 kilogram impost to score a convincing victory in rating 75 company to round out the day's proceedings.
It was a win that has Logan thinking it may be time to step the five-year-old up to better company in the coming weeks.
"He has just thrived since he has been with us and just kept on improving," she enthused.
"He had to carry a big weight but handled it really well. I think what impressed me most was just how he attacked the line in the closing stages.
"It was also a very good ride by Kelly (McCulloch) who seems to really click with him.
"That win has me thinking that he has the ability to step up again so once I get home I'm going to sit down and see what there is coming up for him.
"I also think he can get further than a mile so something over a middle distance will definitely be an option."
Logan watched the race from Hastings where she had Hasselhoof and Valley Girl engaged in the day's Group One feature. Whilst pleased with the effort of Tavistock gelding Hasselhoof she admitted she was perplexed by the run of Valley Girl.
"Hasselhoof did what we wanted from him as he was hitting the line very strongly in the last 100 metres," she said.
"He is coming along well and that run will tighten him up even further.
"On the other hand I just can't explain the effort from Valley Girl. She lugged badly from the 900 metre mark and the bit was through her mouth when she returned.
"She seemed fine when she came back to scale and her joints were all as cool as a cucumber afterwards.
"I've got a vet giving her a complete going over on Monday so if there is a problem I hope it will come out then as at the moment we are none the wiser for what went wrong." – NZ Racing Desk
