Quintet of Negus mares primed for Ashburton

Burnham horseman, Bruce Negus has followed up his second-most winning season as a harness racing trainer with another great year of results in 2022.

While he is a dozen wins shy of the 36 he posted in 2021, when you consider that season was close to 18 months on official records, 24 in a calendar year is more or less on par with that total.

Furthermore, his UDR of .1637 is the second-highest Negus has achieved in the last 20 years. Given the sizeable teams he has been working with, that is a testament to a trainer on top of his game.

Negus heads to tomorrow afternoon’s (Dec. 22) Ashburton meeting with a team of five race mares who all look to be with a chance of adding to the great season of results.

Kicking things off in the sixth on the card is the well-bred daughter of Shadow Play in Katherine.

The close relative to Classie Brigade was a weanling sales purchase for Negus back in 2018 and she hasn’t let him down, winning close to $70,000 in stakes to go with eight race victories.

Despite finishing ninth in the Rangiora Summer Cup last Sunday in behind Get Up N Dance, Katherine was badly held up by a tiring runner turning for home before rattling along the markers to make up some nice ground on the winner.

“The driver came back and felt that had she got clear air and been slightly handier she would have been a winning chance,” said Negus.

“She went 1:55 pretty comfortably at Wyndham and Ashburton races just as quickly so I would imagine if they went 1:54 or there abouts, she would be very competitive,” he said.

Katherine takes on a small but select group of mares that include the likes of the Jason and Ian Thomas trained Evangalist (Shadyshark Hanover) and the stonewall stud trained Cloudy Bay (Bettor’s Delight) but is 2 from 3 over the sprint distance and any improvement on her mile rate would do no harm to her future endeavours.

“She’s a lovely horse and has grown on us all because she is so kind. We are trying to get her in foal at the moment but have been unsuccessful so far, but we are going to keep trying our luck with Captain Crunch. I can’t afford Captaintreacherous, and he looks like the heir apparent to Bettor’s Delight, so I’m breeding to his best available son,” he said.

Race eight sees the four-year-old daughter of Changeover in Sheeza Purla start from the carpark over the sprint trip. On the surface the mare has been a touch disappointing but speaking with Negus its clear he has a bit more time for this mare then others would give her credit for.

“If she raced as good as she worked, she would be a good thing. I thought that the other day, and she went terrible. I don’t know what to make of that run because if I was a betting man, I would have backed her. I can only say that maybe it was the grass track being soft, so I don’t know what to make of her chances,” he said.

Negus races the two-win mare in partnership with Michael House who is destined to take over training duties once more if she doesn’t front up in a hurry.

“I bought her, and Michael (House) and I go halves in a few of the horses he races up at Manawatu and she was destined for that but got a little bit of a swollen fetlock. So, when I turned her out here, I started working her up for him and thought I would take her up to the point where she was ready to race.

“I felt that she was good enough to run around Canterbury, but she will be heading round to his place if she doesn’t measure up quickly,” he said.

Also in the eighth on the programme is the consistent race mare, Phone Tap (He’s Watching). The four-year-old was another who was probably a tad stiff at Rangiora having started from the second row and been buried away along the marker line. The two-win mare weaved well in traffic and sprinted nicely in the run home to get within five lengths of the winner, Krystal Delight.

“She was a bit unlucky the other day, we think if she had of been handier, she would have run in the first three. Her draw isnt bad for her over 1700m being two off the second row and she follows speed really good, so I rate her as a good each way chance,” he said.

Negus has trained a few handy trotting mares in his time with the likes of Rae Galleon and Sundon’s Flyer.

Buffy Northstains (Majestic Son) is another who is working her way into the realm of the aforementioned pair and Negus thinks that when the penny drops, the four-year-old has the ability to win her fair share of races.

“I think she is potentially a multiple race winner and could earn a lot of money because even when she misses away, she can make up the ground and run in the top four. if she continues to follow on the same trajectory, when she is five or six, she could be taking on some of the better horses. We just need to get her settled early because once she is trotting, she trots solid which she didn’t use to do. She is only little, but she is pretty tough,” he said.

The three-win mare galloped away again on Sunday at Rangiora before mounting a big recover and sprinting home stylishly from back in the field to get within seven lengths of the winner, Eurokash. Negus has a gear change in mind for tomorrow afternoons assignment over the 2400m journey.

“She used to go away first out, sometimes by two lengths, and lately she’s taken to rearing up at the start and giving herself major handicapping issues. She’s going better then she has ever gone and if she stepped like she can, Buffy would be a winning chance in any race because I think she has a lot of ability. But like an awful lot of trotters, she is just taking a little while to learn the ropes.

“I’m going to put an under check on her on Thursday in the hope it stops her rearing up. We have all sorts of gear on her at the moment, and it will probably be another year before she is foolproof. One day it will come off her and when that happens, as long as we haven’t given her hard runs which she is inclined to have at the moment missing away, she will make a really nice race mare,” he said.

Rounding out the Negus runners is the lightly tried one win mare, Emma’s Delight (Sir Lincoln).

The three-year-old filly by Sir Lincoln is well related being out of a 4-win Bettor’s Delight half-sister to the dam of New Zealand Derby winner, Locharburn. Suzy’s Delight (Washington VC) was actually trained by Negus nearly 15 years ago, picking up four wins and 18 places in her 51-start career.

Emma’s Delight is the fifth foal of racing age from her dam Classie Emma, and third race winner. Negus believes that with time and a bit of luck, the filly has inherited enough of the family ability to go on with the job.

“She suffered a tendon injury after she raced at Oamaru and won, and we don’t know how that happened. But she had a little bow in it, and we thought enough of her to get stem cell treatment done which they said would help with her recovery and so far, she has stayed pretty right.

“She had her chance in both of her two races back, but we have been happy with her because she had been away from the races for such a long time. She is a fairly fat horse and even though she won her second start, she hadn’t had enough experience to be a good racehorse. It wouldn’t surprise me if she ended up winning quite a few races if she stays right, and that’s a bit of an ‘if’.

“She is getting fitter, and I think it’s her first run back on the clay, and if she got a good run in behind them, I think she is a good place chance, but I couldn’t see her winning from the draw. She will win at short notice because she is quite a good mare and quite well bred.

“Classie Linc is her paddock mate and we don’t think she is much inferior to her. They both are slightly hypochondriacs and think that when they come round the corner there is a lion there waiting to eat them. They shy at tractors and things that most other horses accept. In saying that, like a lot of the Sir Lincolns they are good gaited, get better and have durability and have ability,” he said.

On the above assessments, it wouldn’t come as much surprise if Negus was to have a cracking day on the 11 race Ashburton programme.

When asked to label his best chance of the day, the Burnham horseman found it hard to pick between his highest assessed pacer and his trotter.

“Katherine is almost certain that if she got a good run, she will be right there at the finish. But Buffy, if she did everything right would be really hard to beat. So, the assessment would probably be that they would be equal chances and my best for the day,” he said.

For complete Ashburton race fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink