Trish Dunell
A never-say-die attitude saw promising three-year-old Verry Flash make it three wins from his last four starts when he held out all challenges to score over 1600m at Te Rapa on the weekend.
The Nicholas Bishara trained gelding has come of age in this preparation with regular rider Rowena Smyth convinced he has a big future ahead of him.
“He’s a great horse and the best one I’m riding at the moment,” she said.
“He thinks he knows everything now, he thinks he’s the king.”
That attitude stood the Zed gelding in good stead in Saturday’s rating 75 contest as he was trapped wide near the speed for much of the race after he began well from an outside barrier.
Despite the wide passage Smyth had her charge relaxed nicely before urging him into a challenging position as they approached the home turn. In a dour struggle Verry Flash asserted his dominance in the final stages to forge to the front where he maintained a three-quarters of a length margin over Instinctive Habit with Hawera visitor Big Ben fighting strongly to hold third.
“He’s a very nice horse who is going places,” said Bishara after the race.
“I think he is going to make a very nice stayer in the spring.
“At the moment we are just holding him to a mile on the wet tracks but there are a couple of nice staying races early in the spring when there’s a bit of cut in the ground.
“There’s not a lot of him but he’s got a big ticker.”
While Verry Flash is currently the star of the stable, Bishara is looking forward to the new season with a promising team coming to hand including Verry Flash’s younger sister Verry Elleegant, who finished second on debut at Te Rapa earlier in the month.
“We’ve got some nice horses coming through so it’s quite exciting,” he said.
“We’d like to take her (Verry Elleegant) up to Ruakaka next as, although she’s a Zed, she’s not a heavy tracker.
“She just wants a spring/autumn track, so we’ll see if we can get an easy kill and then work our way into the early spring races if she is good enough.” – NZ Racing Desk
Verry Flash wins at Te Rapa