Hurrah for Hushed

A brilliant display in the saddle by Te Akau stable rider Opie Bosson enabled Hushed (6 g Don Eduardo - Danewhisper, by Danehill) to take a massive step up in winning the $30,000 SVS Hamilton Cup over 2000 metres on 4 February at Te Rapa.

Hushed won four races last season, was a fresh-up winner with Te Akau apprentice Jasmine Fawcett aboard on New Year's Eve at Stratford, and Bosson never missed beat when having his first feel of the smart staying prospect.

“We had a perfect run, got out at the right time and he kept going,” Bosson said. “The track is perfect.

“He's still on the way up too, going to improve and he's a stayer going somewhere,” he said, of the horse owned and bred by Dr. Ron Boet and Anne Hadfield and raced by them with The Carers' Syndicate.

Out well and cosily placed in the trail throughout, Bosson put a break on the field with Hushed early in the home straight and inside the final furlong it became apparent the advantage was too great for his rivals.

Winning by a long neck, Hushed ran the 2000 metres in 2:02.6, last 600m in 35.2, paying $4.80 & $1.60 on the tote and $4.25 & $1.55 fixed odds.

Now the winner of six races from fifteen starts, Hushed could have earned himself a start in the $100,000 Avondale Gold Cup (Gr. 2, 2400m) on 18 February at Ellerslie.

“He made the step up and raced like a proper cups' horse,” said Jamie Richards, who trains the horse with Stephen Autridge.

“He showed good natural gate speed, took a sit, and really quickened up well when Opie asked him to.

“I thought the last one-hundred (metres) could find him out - up to 2000 metres and a month between runs - but he certainly handled it well and has a pretty exciting future in front of him."

With regard to stepping up in distance for the Avondale Cup, Richards said: “I don't think it will be a problem now that he has two runs under his belt. He's handled the work well at home, eating very well.

“He is a lovely big horse by Don Eduardo, with plenty of scope, and I think he's really going to enjoy the mile and a half, and even a little bit further.

“I'm really please for Anne Hadfield who's made the trip up from Christchurch to watch him run today.  Dr. Ron Boet, a neurosurgeon at Christchurch Hospital, and she own this horse and race him with a syndicate of five nurses and it's great to have a horse like this come up from the South Island and really step up."

Te Akau also produced his three-year-old half-brother Alamosa Express (Alamosa), owned by Dr. Boet, to win on debut over 1200 metres in November at Pukekohe, and previously trained four-time winner Secret Whisper (Align), a half-brother, purchased by Te Akau principal David Ellis for $40,000, from the draft of Phoenix Park, at the 2010 New Zealand Bloodstock Select Yearling Sale.

“Steve and Jamie have done an amazing job with this horse, and he's one of the most exciting staying horses in New Zealand,” Ellis said.

“It was only second up from a spell for him today and he's got so much more improvement to come. And I can see him winning a good Cup race, that's for sure.  It was a brilliant ride by stable jockey Opie Bosson and I'm thrilled for the owners with the success they're having.”

Hushed was strapped by Simon Buckley.

Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz