Racing, rugby and a job vacancy head busy weekend for Teaz

Cambridge harness racing trainer, Jason Teaz, was kind enough to take my call late on a school night and offer some thoughts about his team for this weekend’s North Island meetings at Cambridge Raceway and Alexandra Park.

So it was only right that we return the favour by starting with some shameless free advertising given the former race caller has been pulling what hair he has left out in pursuit of an elusive employee to help fill the void in his racing stable.

“It’s an absolute nightmare,” said Teaz.

“I am doing ten horses between myself and a couple of volunteers in my mother and her partner Ron who is the Clerk of the Course at Cambridge and Auckland. They help me out but they have their own business and lives and I have just been unable to find anyone to fill the void.

“Surely there is someone out there who wants a job in harness racing, trying to find someone with experience is difficult but I cant see why a junior not getting many opportunities wouldn’t want to make the move and work for me and get a few drives along the way and build their career. Why be one of 25 in the South Island when you could be one of eight or nine up here in the North. I am at the desperation point because I should be working more than 10 but I don’t have the human resources to take any more on,” he said.

This position is for approx 5-7 hours a day, 6 days a week as well as the opportunity to come to race meetings and interested parties can contact Jason on 0274053399 or by email at jasonteaz@gmail.com

You line up Kaipaki Jack (Love You) in the second on the card with Peter Ferguson in the bike. By the looks of things you haven’t had him in the barn very long but his couple of workouts looked to show enough to keep you and the owners interested?

“He has been a work in progress. Even though he’s five, he acts like he has a bit of ADHD and he thinks he’s still a two-year-old, he’s very very green,” laughed Teaz.

“We got him from the same owners as Ultimate Moment, and he knew even less about racing than him when he joined me. I had broken him in and had him as a two-year-old. He was a big horse who needed time and the owner did him himself and was working him on his own and qualified him first time off the property.

“Then he decided to race him and he didn’t learn a great deal in that time so it has been a start-from-scratch scenario. Even though he is a horse who has had six starts, every one has been like his first in a roundabout way. We are learning the ropes with him.

“The hardest part has been the fact that in the North island we don’t have any maiden trots being programmed and end up taking on horses who he shouldn’t be racing at this stage of his career. He has had to learn on the job and its been tough, but he is getting there. I’ve added a bit of extra weight to his shoes. He probably galloped last time for a couple reasons.

“He had never been that fast before, they went 2:51 off the front. And he was just getting a bit tired so I just think the extra weight will help him at this stage of his career and I am just hoping he gets around in one piece, if he does I am sure he will be the first or second maiden home.

And Ultimate Moment (Quite Easy) in the fourth. Followers of the horse will know it took him 30 odd starts to break maidens and then winning became a bit of a habit there for a while! His effort two starts back at Alexandra Park showed he is working his way back into some form and could be a great chance in this field tomorrow night?

“He had a spell just before Christmas there because he got quite high in the grades. He actually came back alright but when he went to Hawera, I dunno what happened whether he got sick or he just didn’t travel. He was stopping half a lap out which is extremely unlike him. We had every test under the sun done and couldn’t find anything wrong so we have pressed on and his work has been good. It was good to see him find a bit of form at Auckland. I think last start he went better then it looked, Andre probably just forgot to give him a break,” he laughed.

“He kept humming the whole way and when that horse has won off the front he usually pinches at least one quarter, but the other night the speed told against the good trotters. On paper you would say it is a step back in grade, albeit offset by the 10m handicap. He does have a bit of a quirk of galloping away off a handicap and I’m not sure whether that is because he doesn’t like being behind other horses so drawing where he has isn’t ideal behind the two front markers.

“If he steps and finds the front, I am pretty sure he is up to winning this race and hurt them. It just depends whether someone wants to take him on and will be heart in the mouth stuff early, but apart from that he should go pretty good.

Then Friday night you head north of the Bombay’s to Auckland for Derby night with the old stable favourite Brookie’s Jaffa (Auckland Reactor). The preferential grid has done him no favours drawing the second row behind a slow beginner but he wasn’t too bad last week and obviously has some assignments he is working towards in the Autumn?

“The one horse I didn’t want to follow he has ended up behind. He is another one who had a bit of a freshen up and didn’t find his best since heading down to Hawera. Obviously the weather was really bad that weekend with a lot of dust and I think that played a part in how a lot of the horses performed. He’s an older horse and he does take a bit of time to get going,” he said.

“Last week I made the decision to take him to the races instead of the trials cause I was pretty sure he would run fourth at worst and he got $1200 for going around so I was pretty happy with that. And to be fair he didnt cop the track, it extremely heavy last week. They’ve put a lot of straight sand on it and some horses just dont cop it in the wet.

“I am sure he will keep improving, tomorrow is all about hoping to see him take another step because he has qualified for the Country Cup Final so that is what we are aiming for. Some people are willing to tell me that he’s finished and I guess most horses that have had 100+ starts and had as many wars as him are probably headed toward the exit, but I am not willing to admit that yet.

“We have had problems with his feet over the summer and I’m sure when he finds that peak fitness he is going to come back to it. We’ve been given no favours with the draw and field on Friday night but I am hoping he can beat at least half of them home.

Speaking of old buggers working their way back into form, how is Jason Teaz feeling about another season of Premier club footy in the Waikato?

“I had 17 years off so this is my third season back and I’m looking forward to it. We have had a pre-season game already and have another coming up on Saturday and I am loving it. I’m still being selected for the A team which I am pretty happy about at my age,” he laughed.

“It just gets you out the stable to be honest, racing can get you down sometimes so to get out and have some camaraderie and some warfare, it is good for the soul. Its even better when you are doing team drills and your running past guys half your age and to think I can still do it. Either that or the other buggers are just terribly unfit. Pretty much for the next six months I will hobble around until October with a few injuries along the way but I just love it and will have about 30 games this year across the various grades.

“I was picked for the Waikato Presidents side last year which was a huge thrill, obviously any time you get to represent the Waikato is a big honour and hopefully this season will be as fun as last year,” he said.

On a different note, it must have been bittersweet saying goodbye to another nice trotter in Wishing Star who I believe is off to join the Andy Gath stable in Victoria?

“I had to let Noble Count and Wishing Star go in the last few months and those horses were responsible for nine wins for me in the last year. The hard thing about Wishing Star was he is a dead set leader. If you go back and look through his form, whenever he was off the front he was in the first three.

Whenever he was off a handicap he found it hard to get into the race. His form this year had been awful but he couldn’t find a race off the front marks and the owners got sick of it and made the decision to sell him. Im sure he will do well in Australia, he trialled well on Saturday and looked really good and I am sure he will win plenty of races over there,” he said.

For complete Cambridge fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink