Spike gets the North Island on the board

Little Spike was the first North Islander to claim a title at today’s Pheobe Stud Harness 5000 at Ashburton today.

The four year old gelding is raced by the Estate of the late Ken Piercy and his wife Audrey.

“She’s ninety three and lives in Wellington. I hope she’s watching,” trainer Arna Donnelly said after the win.

From his second row draw, driver Sam Ottley was quick to get Little Spike on the back of her main rival Rock N Bust and the pair raced in the outside running line. At the 500 driver Tim Williams let Rock N Bust roll and Ottley followed him into the race.

“Tim got pushed out round the bend and I was thinking ‘keep going Tim, keep going’ because I wanted to follow him for as long as I could,” Ottley said.

As the field turned in for the run home, both horses were making their runs down the middle of the track with Rock N Bust getting the early advantage.

“I waited until we straightened 100 metres into the straight. It took a little bit to get past the other horse and to his credit he stuck on really good but I was always confident I was going to get past him.”

At the end of the 1700 metres Little Spike (Terror To Love) had a neck advantage over Rock N Bust (Rocknroll Hanover) with Bannockburn (Locharburn) three quarters of a length back in third.

LITTLE SPIKE REPLAY

The winning time was 2-01.0 a mile rate of 1-54.5.

The win was only his second this season but after winning five races as a three year old he’s been forced to take on the open grade horses like Merlin and Sooner The Better this season.

“His season’s been fantastic and he’s just getting better and better. Next up will be the Auckland Cup which will be a little bit tougher, but we’ve got to have a go,” Donnelly said.

The win was one of three for stallion Terror To Love with the other winners being Amass and Amarillo Franco.

The Piercys have had horses for over forty years, initially trained by the late Bryce Buchanan.

Little Spike’s pedigree goes back to Nice Gesture which left Mister Greatheart who was raced by Ken and Audrey and won two races for Buchanan and a further two for Dick Prendergast.

Nice Gesture also left Bella Ragazzo, the dam of Giovanetto (18 wins), Holmes DG (32) and Hanover DG (4).

The Piercys also bred and raced Lover’s Wish with Buchanan which won four races including the 1995 G3 Southland Oaks.

She was out of Sonny’s Princess, a daughter of Queenship who left a host of winners including Lord Hillas (6), Queens Advocate (4), Carefree Princess (8), Noble Fella (9) and Horatius (4). All were bred by Ken’s brother Bill.

Little Spike is named after Ken as that was his nickname when he was young.

The most successful horse Donnelly has trained for the Piercys has been New York Minute which has won fifteen races and was good enough to run fourth in the G1 Four Year Old Emerald won by South Coast Arden.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink