Marokopa Falls (H Hassman) galloped over an easy 1000 metres in 1.12, home in 41.8.
Riccarton
Cranbourne – 20th Sept
Titahi Bay (L Winks) galloped over an easy 1000 metres in 1.11.7, home in 39.6.
Matamata – 24th Sept
Emma Twigg (T Mevin) worked at three quarter pace over 800 metres in 59.9, home in 44.6.
Cranbourne – 24th Sept
Titahi Bay (L Winks) galloped over 1000 metres in 1.07.4, last 600 in 38.2.
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Other News
MARK WALKER NAMED AJRA CHAMPION JUMPS’ TRAINER
LEADERBOARD with Strapper Hailey Morton and Trainer Mark Walker celebrate success in the
E Cycle Solutions Grand National Steeples – Ballarat 17th August 2025
Te Akau’s 12-time Champion Trainer Mark Walker, who ticked over 2000 career wins in 2024, added to his achievements at The Australian Jumps’ Racing Association (AJRA) 2025 AJRA Mosstrooper Awards, held on 20 September at Glasshaus Inside in Cremorne, Melbourne.The Mosstrooper Awards celebrate the very best in jumps’ racing: the horses, trainers, jockeys, ground staff, and all those that make jumps racing thrive. In a series of jumps’ races, Walker recorded the highest number of points to win the JJ Houlahan Championship – Champion Trainer Award.Walker has always had a soft spot of jumpers, highlighted by training some of the best in the past two seasons in Victoria, from the Te Akau stable at Cranbourne. He made history in August this year when becoming the first trainer to ever trifecta the prestigious Grand National Steeplechase (4500m), won by Leaderboard (Street Cry), followed by stable-mates The Mighty Spar (Savabeel) and Prismatic (Savabeel).In 2024, Walker had six wins and four seconds from 13 starts over fences last season, shared two wins apiece by Prismatic, The Mighty Spar, and Leaderboard. The same trio was to the fore again this season, with The Mighty Spar winning four steeplechases in a row and Leaderboard, the former Group 3 Wellington Cup (3200m) and Listed St Leger (2600m) winner, notching three wins during the jumps’ season.“It was an honour to win the Jumps’ Trainer Award, especially named after the legendary Jim Houlahan, who was a true icon of the sport and Hall of Fame trainer,” Walker said. “It was a great day the Grand National day, the first time in history in Australia that the trifecta in the Steeplechase came from the same stable, and quite amazing because we only had the three jumpers going around throughout the season. I’ve always found the jumpers to be great in helping to educate the yearlings and giving them confidence. We’ve always had a few jumpers over the years – not many – just a handful, and they’re great schoolmasters. It’s a two-fold thing, the enjoyment we get out of having a few runners through the winter, when we don’t have many for wet track racing on the flat, and it keeps up the team’s enthusiasm through the long, cold, wet, winters, and also, as mentioned, the help in educating the young ones.”
John says – “I am incredibly proud of what Mark has achieved here with this award and obviously the Fortuna steeplechaser Leaderboard has been a big part of this achievement, but what makes it particularly remarkable is that Mark has, in relative terms, only been at Cranbourne for five minutes and the Te Akau stable there is not a specific “jumping stable” with only a handful of horses who contest jumping races and yet he’s taken this title ahead of a number of other stables over there in Victoria who specifically specialise in jumps racing with large teams – well done Mark and all the Team at Cranbourne.
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NZ Jumps racing surges back with highly successful season finale – the Great New Zealand two day carnival at Te Aroha
I attended the Great New Zealand steeplechase day at Te Aroha last Sunday and what an amazing race day experience it was. I arrived on track about 20 minutes before the first race. The members car park was virtually full and there were, by my estimate, already 150 cars plus in the public car park area and the crowd just kept on coming. It was very hard to get a seat in the stand and the atmosphere on the day was just electric, with some great jumps racing and a crowd that was very vocal and appreciative of the race day.
Jumps racing has come a long way in just 12 months when you consider that at this time last year it was looking like NZTR wanted to get rid of jumps racing, but a fight back from the jumps racing fraternity saw an increase in prize money, an increase in jumps riders coming to New Zealand from overseas to participate and a good increase in horse numbers as well, with the result that most jumps races during the seasons had some pretty good sized fields.
NZ Herald Racing writer, Mick Guerin, summed things up pretty well in his piece in the Herald on Monday, in which he said “a wonderful renaissance for jumps racing in New Zealand this year with this weekend’s Great New Zealand Carnival the exclamation mark on a comeback story many predicted was impossible and plenty didn’t want to see – anyone in New Zealand Racing who thinks jumps racing shouldn’t continue clearly wasn’t at Te Aroha yesterday”
A special guest at this carnival was the iconic “voice of Warrnambool”, race caller Rik McIntosh, who was a special guest at a function held in Matamata on Saturday evening, which I also attended, and he tells a story how 15 years ago the Warrnambool Carnival was in a bit of trouble, but with a lot of input from the powers that be, particularly at a local level, they managed to turn the ship around and the three day Warrnambool carnival now attracts around 30,000 attendees over the three day carnival. Rik called some races at Te Aroha over the two days (Friday and Sunday)
See this very informative piece from Mick Guerin HERE and listen to his comments and interviews with jumps trainer, Jess Brosnan, who has been at the forefront of the revival, jumps rider, Joshua Parker, who came to NZ from the UK to ride and Training legend John Wheeler
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MALBOROUGH BAY heads to Cranbourne in the New Year to pursue a Jumps career in Victoria – shares available
MALBOROUGH BAY, the six year old gelding by Darci Brahma, has been a consistent performer on the flat, winning six times to date in his career and getting to an 87 rating, but has also shown significant ability when schooling over the jumps in the past couple of years as part of his preparation for flat racing – he was given 3 Hurdles trials this season before making his Hurdles debut at Te Aroha 19th September, where he finished 3rd and may well have gone close to winning, but for the fact that he bungled the final hurdle – the training team assessment after that race was that he had shown enough in his trials and on raceday to indicate he could be very competitive in Victoria in Hurdles events, where his proven flat ability would also be an asset. Spelling now, he will return to training around 1st November and will travel to Victoria in February – as can happen when we transition gallopers from flat to jumping, not all syndicate members wish to be part of a jumping syndicate and so a 5% share in Marlborough Bay has become available. He has been independently valued at $15,000, so the 5% here is available for $750 with ongoing payments of $250 per month from the 1st of October although these payments will lift to NZ$350 per month from the 1st of March – that’s because training costs in Australia are significantly higher than they are in New Zealand. – this 5% share can be broken up into minimum parcels of 1% at $150 and $50 per month from the 1st of October and $70 from the 1st of March – if you have interest in all or part of this opportunity, just email me in response indicating the percentage that you are interested in
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Guest Commentator – Des Coppins
Greetings John and Fortuna followers
It’s a topsy turvey spring track wise. Last Saturday we enjoyed perfect surfaces at both Ellerslie and Trentham only for this week to see the weather turn for the worse. It’s been a harrowing week of wind and rain and sadly Te Rapa tomorrow, with at least 50mils of rain recorded since Monday, won’t be getting anything but a tougher than normal surface for this time of the year, despite the rain easing off in the last 24 hours.
Te Rapa hosts two very important calendar events; the Group One Howden Insurance Mile (ex Arrowfield) and the Hawkes Bay Guineas.
50th Anniversay of Balmerino
Where’s the time gone?
Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the mighty Balmerino’s Hawkes Bay Guineas win. Balmerino was the champion three year old of his year and the Hawkes Bay Guineas was the start of a black type career that eventually had him as a world class galloper.
Let’s reflect briefly on his career before I share my most famous, never to be forgotten, Balmerino story. As a three year old to go alongside the Hawkes Bay Guineas, his achievements included both the Group One NZ 2000 Guineas and the NZ Derby (run on Boxing Day) before beating up the three year old opposition in the Rawson Stakes (nowadays Ranvet) the PJ O’Shea Stakes, the Tulloch Stakes as well as the Brisbane Cup against the older horses.
Later in his career he traveled to the Northern Hemisphere. He won a Group One in Italy before being relegated to second place and he also ran second in the Eclipse Stakes and the Coronation Cup in the UK as well as arguably his greatest performance of all, an unlucky second to Her Majesty’s Alleged in the Prix de L’Arc in France.
Balmerino had 39 starts in NZ, Australia, USA, Italy and France for 21 wins, 9 seconds and one third. As well as being inducted into both the NZ and Australian Hall of Fame, he was also joint Champion Older Horse in the UK and France in 1977 with a time form rating of 133.
And getting back to my most memorable Balmerino inspired moment. I was less than two years into my role as Editor of the weekly tabloid, Friday Flash, when I set off with 60 fellow kiwis to the States to watch Balmerino run in the Hollywood Gold Cup against the world’s best. Sadly Balmerino didn’t measure up and I think he ran about 9th in a field of 15.
However, there was a highlight as I stood in the queue to place a bet. Standing along side me was a giant of a man, arguably one of the greatest Hollywood actors of his time, Mr Gregory Peck. To say I was a bit star struck would be an understatement!
We spoke. “Where ya from son?”When I told him he added “how do you think your horse will go”?
It didn’t play out as we’d hope but I remember him saying to us what we’ve all been saying for most of our lives when our bet runs below expectations. “That’s racing!”
Hollywood Park was disbanded fully as a racetrack in 2015 and Oscar winner Gregory Peck, who famously owned race horses including Different Class, who ran third in the 1968 Grand National Steeples behind Red Alligator, died in 2003.
Balmerino retired to stud in 1979. He was moderately successful but sired 29 stakes winners with arguably the best being Bounty Hawk, who was trained by Bart Cummings.
Balmerino died in May 1996. He was legendary, maybe, alongside Sunline, the greatest NZ bred galloper since Phar Lap and to think it was 50 years ago tomorrow when we all knew he was something very special.
JUST MY OPINION
As rich and inviting and exciting races to bet on they are, I honestly believe the presence of the NZ Kiwi and the Karaka Three Year Old comes at a cost. The traditional quality three year old races like the Levin Classic and now the Oaks and the Derby aren’t measuring up with the same talent today as they used to.
As a result the Levin Classic was downgraded to Group 2 a couple of years ago and we learnt this week that both our glamour three year old events aren’t meeting the threshold of group one status, either. The Oaks, in particular, is under serious warning.
As a result, the Trentham based event since 1977 will shift from mid March to the end of February and race at Ellerslie on Avondale Cup Day next year. The powers that be hope that both the Oaks and the Derby will therefore assist each another and repel any need for a downgrade.
It may not be that simple, however. The introduction of the Karaka three year old and the richest race in the land, the Kiwi, with their continued rise in prize money, will continue to bruise all our premier three year old events. Sure, those that complete in these special events, must go through the NZB sales ring (or in the case of the NZ Kiwi, be bred in NZ, but after seeing the poor old Levin Classic get tossed around like a rag doll over various dates and tracks through the presence of the Karaka three year old it’ll come as no surprise if the Oaks, in particular, suffers further as the presence of the NZB high end money races continue to make an impact.
I genuinely hope I’m wrong.
SPOTTED AS UNLUCKY!
TRAV: was slow to begin and was only warming up over the last furlong or so to run 4th with the quickest final sectionals at Ellerslie. He’s now off to Melbourne. He’s about 53 in the ballot order for the Melbourne Cup. Gee, I’d love to see him show top form in the Bart Cummings over 2500m on October4. If he wins, he’s in the Cup. For the record two horses have come out of the Bart Cummings and won the Cup; Almandin in 2016 and our very own, Brew, in 2000.
I’M ALL IN: he had to be restrained off heels in the r75 over 1200 and he did well from the wide draw to round off the quickest sectionals. He looks ready for a next up win.
GENEVA: looks an oil painting. He’s an impressive type with loads of ability. He was ridden back in a tidy three year old race at Ellerslie but nothing, apart from the winner, came home the quickest. He’s a $14 chance in the 2000 Guineas for what it’s worth.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY MY EMAIL TIPS SERVICE @ $100
As we draw into October following good success in September (both the Best Bet and Value Bet won at Trentham on Saturday and also at Cambridge on Wednesday). I’m happy to offer Fortuna followers the exciting entire month of October for $100 ( gst inclusive). That’s 26 meetings.
As a bonus by signing up today you’ll receive the big meeting at Te Rapa tomorrow, Riccarton as well and Waverley on Sunday.
Simply email me dcoppins@xtra.co.nz and all will be revealed.
Good punting. Stay dry!
Des Coppins
021 448 052
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PS. Some Galvin Family news – our oldest boy, James, turned 15 on the 23rd Sept and on the 24th, he departed for a 12 day trip to Chile, as part of the Ricki Herbert Football Academy – he has been in this Academy now for six years and had enjoyed previous trips away (Christchurch, Sydney and Melbourne) in previous years. James has had a big year – a Year 10 student at Saint Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton, he spent the first two terms at that school’s Tihoi Venture School near Lake Taupo, but did get three games of football for his club team when on exit weekends from Tihoi, and then on returning home for term three, he was playing football three times a week – on Friday night for the Saint Paul’s 1st 11, on Saturdays for the Saint Paul’s Colt’s team and then on Sunday for his under 15 team at Hamilton Wanderers. James is a defender, as tall as his Dad (185cms) and seems to be going the right way with his football career
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