Latest News

Who can blame Hawkesbury trainer Jason Clisby for wanting to head back to Gosford with his mare Zaveena on Tuesday week?

Zaveena is now unbeaten from two starts there and will line up in a Benchmark 60 Handicap (2100m).

“I just hope the rain turns up as well,” Clisby said after his five-year-old mare had outstayed her four rivals in a Benchmark 65 Handicap over the same course at Gosford last Friday on wet ground.

“She is a real little trier and the rain definitely helps her.”

Starting the $7.50 outsider of the five-horse field, Zaveena (Grant Buckley) clinched the fourth win of her 31-start career. Despite being under pressure approaching the home turn, she kept responding to Buckley’s urging and was too strong for Quartermaster ($3.40) and Red Viking ($5.50).

Buckley was also aboard when Zaveena scored over the 2100m in a Benchmark 63 Handicap on October 27 last year. That was the only occasion Zaveena has scored on a good surface, her other three wins all being on rain-affected ground.

Her first two victories were at Wellington and Bathurst.

Clisby said his only surprise about his mare’s success last Friday was the fact she started the outsider of the field.

“She needed the run at Warwick Farm at her previous start, and the wet ground was in her favour.”

Whilst Adam Hyeronimus had to settle for second on runner-up Quartermaster, he was successful on another Hawkesbury representative Anne’s Gift in the opening event, the Maiden Handicap (1100m).

Anne’s Gift, like Zaveena, is a five-year-old and also started at the same price ($7.50).

Giving trainer Karen Outtrim an overdue win, Anne’s Gift ousted fancied pair Lady Moochi ($2.25 favorite) and Engaging ($2.60).

A son of former handy stayer Prince Arthur, Anne’s Gift also races well at Gosford.

He had run second there in late December at his only other start at the Central Coast track, and finally broke through on Friday at his 16th start.

Outtrim has only two horses in work at Hawkesbury, and was understandably delighted to get a breakthrough success with Anne’s Gift, named after her mother. View the program for next Tuesday's Gosford meeting here.