 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2021
HORSES
Newly-crowned Group One-winning trainer Craig Edmonds says he doesn’t like trotters any more than pacers.
“I just like fast horses,” he laughs.
But that comment gets harder to believe when Five Wise Men gave Edmonds and his daughter Aimee their first Group One winner in the $100,000 Livamol NZ Trotting Derby at Addington on Friday and you realise of their 51 career wins together 43 have been with trotters.
“I suppose we just tend to get more trotters but I think we have done pretty well with the pacers we have had too,” says Edmonds.
“But we have been involved with these owners for a long time and they have had such a great breed of trotters so the better horses we get are trotters.
“And I do like the shoeing and mucking around with that part of it all so maybe that helps with the trotters.” Edmonds is being overly modest about his success with the squaregaiters as he does plenty of trotting work for son-in-law John Dunn, who is married to his other daughter Jenna.
“We all work in well together and Aimee not only helps out with the horses but it great with the accounts and the owners,” says Edmonds.
“So it is a real team effort even though Aimee and I don’t have that many horses in our own name.” They have a very good one now though in Five Wise Men, who has left little doubt he is the best of this three-year-old crop, which he had to be on Friday night.
He was left out of the early burn by Dunn but got the breeze easily by the bell before giving punters a scare when chucking in a rough stride at the 850m when he started to race fiercely. But even learning on the job he was too good, holding out a luckless Time Up The Hill, a brave Son Of Patrick and Leaf Stride, who was another pushed back at a crucial stage.
As good as he has been, Five Wise Men will have to learn a new skill and quickly before he comes to Auckland for the Sires Stakes Final and Northern Trotting Derby as he has never even been worked right-handed.
“He does all his work on the beach so I haven’t tried him right-handed at all,” explains Edmonds.
“But I will start that next week and I am confident he will be fine because he is good gaited. He hangs out a bit this way so I think he will hang in up there so we might need to tinker with his gear a bit.”
Credit: HRNZ
YEAR: 2021
HORSES
Krug’s superstar qualities turned pre-race concern into post-race jubilation as he left his rivals in his wake in a brilliant New Zealand Derby win at Addington on Friday night.
Driver Blair Orange seized the opportunity to control the Group One feature in front and in the process delivered the quickest of answers following a week of pontificating by fans and pundits over how the Cran and Chrissie Dalgety trained colt would handle his wide front row.
The result afterwards was both predictable and a delight to the three-year-old’s army of fans as Krug and Orange never gave their rivals even a slight look-in in the home straight.
In winning, the star colt joined a select group of winners of both the New Zealand and Northern derbies.
After taking his camp on a wild ride during his incredible Northern Derby win, Cran Dalgety admitted this time relief was one of his overriding emotions.
“It is actually a thrill just to win one, let alone two.”
“Coming into tonight expectations were high that he would perform – that he would win and do this and that.”
“But as a trainer you just can’t take that on board until the job is actually done.”
“It is a big thrill and a big relief as much as it is a big thrill.”
Krug came to be a dual derby winner during a hectic three-year-old season, packed with two-year-old features rescheduled because of COVID19.
The Dalgety stable have expertly guided their star colt through a busy schedule and under their management Krug just keeps getting better.
Cran was modest when he and his wife were credited for an outstanding training performance.
“We planned to do this, we planned to get him fit and planned to get him healthy.”
“But the last percentage is in the lap of the gods and we were lucky in that respect.”
“Blair was able to drive him hard and he was still good enough to fight the others off.”
The Harness Jewels are the next target for New Zealand’s star three-year-old.
Beyond that the Dalgety camp are spoilt for choice with plenty of age-group features to target across the Tasman.
Though nothing has been confirmed, the Dalgety stable is leaning towards venturing to Australia rather than aiming their derby winning star at the New Zealand Cup.
“What to do next is a very good question and a very hard one to answer," Cran said.
“To answer it half-pie, sure we would love to be in the New Zealand Cup.”
“But I don’t want to miss the age-group racing on the way through because we can’t back-pedal on that.”
“The New Zealand Cup will always be there every 365 days.”
“You are only three once and to tentatively put it forward, I would love to have a crack at another derby or two in Australia.”
The Dalgety camp have the Rising Sun (July 10), the Queensland Derby (July 24), Victoria Derby (October 9) and the Australasian Breeders Crown (November 21) as possible targets.
B D Joe chased hard from the trail to run second behind Krug, his second Group One second placing following his runner-up effort behind It’s All About Faith in the Sires Stakes Final.
The Falcon followed the quinella makers through from three-deep on the markers to run third.
Credit: Jonny Turner