Hoof It Hagrid impresses on debut

The breeding combination of Andover Hall and Miss Lovalot has once again proved to be successful for the Smith and Bagrie families with the win today at Rangiora of Hoof It Hagrid.

Hoof It Hagrid (Andover Hall) began well, and driver John Dunn positioned the three year old gelding three back on the fence behind leader Clovelly Hill.

Once the parked horse dropped off, Dunn had plenty of room to bring his charge down the centre of the track to beat Clovelly Hill by a head with half a neck back to Wypout.

HOOF IT HAGRID REPLAY

“He’s got a great heart rate, such a big stride and seems to do everything really easily. Today it was just a sprint home. But he was still able to pick them up. Rangiora has a massive leaders bias so it was a pretty good effort to get over the top of them,” Bagrie said.

Hoof It Hagrid is a full brother to Harold Smith which won six races and was placed another eleven times for Bargie. He was exported to Australia earlier this year and is now with Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin.

“He was supposed to have his first start over there last night, but he was scratched.”

Another full brother Kawhi, has also been a winner for the Bagrie stable and was back at the Rangiora trials last week, running second.

All three horses are out of Love You mare Miss Lovalot which was bred by Marty Smith.

“Harold Smith was a fairly progressive type early on so we bred two full brothers to try and get the same result. Kawhi is not a bad horse but he’s been up and down in his form. He’s a different sort of animal (to Harold Smith). Hoof It Hagrid and Harold Smith are similar as they’re both athletics type and move well across the ground.”

Bagrie has taken his time with Hoof It Hagrid. The gelding has been in and out of work and has been well drilled at trials and workouts since January.

“He’s always had ability but he was such a big horse and physically he wasn’t quite there. So we just tried to do the right thing by him.”

The three year old is owned by Bagrie, his blacksmith Paul “Dougie” Howlett and Marty Smith’s daughter and son, Claire and Sam Smith.

“The whole family is involved in the breeding and racing side of the industry and they’ve all got horses with me. Dougie was pretty pleased with the result today too. He brought the whole family out. It was great.”

Hoof It Hagrid will now have a short spell and Bagrie hopes he can progress into age group racing later in the season.

“We hope so, but you never know. He seems to have a few good qualities which makes us think we can have a look anyway. He went bloody good today but it’s just a Sunday meeting. We’ll give him his opportunity and see how far we progress.”

So the end of season New Zealand Trotting Derby could be on the horse’s radar.

Meanwhile Bagrie’s quality trotting mare Walkinonsunshine (Creatine) is getting close to resuming and she was back at the trials last week. She hasn’t been to the races since running in the G1 New Zealand Trotting Derby in December.

“We didn’t go to Auckland so we gave her a good break and she’s getting ready for the Jasmyn Gift at Oamaru on the 15^th September. We’re really happy with her because she’s had a long time out. Seth (Hill) drove her, and she poked up late on the inside. She should be a whole lot better with a few trials and is a different horse to look at – not skin and bones any more. I think she came back in a hundred kgs heavier, which is massive. She raced those good horses last season and did it on raw ability. We should be seeing the best of her this time in.”

The four year old’s main target will be the newly announced $100,000 GI Queen Of Diamonds at Alexandra Park on 13^th December.

“If we’re going well enough that’s definitely where we’re heading.”

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink