Swing Note Sensational

The thrilling victory by Swing Note (4 m Encosta De Lago - Andallthatjazz, by Bianconi) in the $50,000 Christchurch Casino Spring Classic (Listed, 2000m) culminated a day of highs and lows for Te Akau Racing.

At Riccarton, the six horses to face the starter resulted in three wins and three seconds - a proud record - but disaster had struck earlier in the day.

“It was a brilliant end to finish a very, very sad day for us,” said Te Akau principal David Ellis.

“It started at the track this morning at Matamata, where two of our horses had a serious accident and had to be put down. Seirios, who'd been racing in good form, lost his rider Cyrille Leveque and then the horse collided with Live Wire, one of the most up and coming fillies we had in the stable.

“We were so lucky that neither jockey was hurt. Jordan Nason was riding Live Wire and after dropping Cyrille, Seirios turned around and bolted the other way into Live Wire.

“So, we started the day really badly and then our first horse at Trentham, Total Excess was unloaded from the starting gates and scratched. And to finish a very eventful day with Swing Note winning a stakes' race, and In A Twinkling finishing second in the Zacinto Stakes, was one of the most exciting thrills and pick me ups we've had in racing.

“Jamie (Richards) and his father, Paul Richards, have got our horses racing unbelievably well at Riccarton. They've had 11 winners with the southern based team, Jamie has trained 32 winners overall, including seven stakes' winners, at a phenomenal strike rate of 3.7 and closing in on a million dollars in prize money - it's only October - and over fifty percent of the horses are paying a dividend.

“These are statistics that are very hard to achieve and in order for that to happen you know all the staff in every part of our business are doing a tremendous job. The staff here at Te Akau Stud, the racing team staff at the stables in Matamata, the team down at Riccarton, are all contributing to these incredible results.

“I bought Swing Note as a yearling for $60,000. She was out of a Guineas' winning mare and I thought the price was unbelievable value. She was a very athletic filly, by a sire we've had huge success with. We really have had some top horses by Encosta De Lago, none more so than Princess Coup and more recently Costa Viva, Echezeaux and Imperium.

“It was really exciting result because Julia-Rose (Ellis) bought her fiancé Hamish (Hayes) a share in Swing Note for his birthday. Hamish said to me there's three great moments in his life. One was when he proposed to Julia-Rose, one when they had their first child, and Swing Note winning today.”

Brilliantly trained by Richards to win the race she was set for, Swing Note was also the recipient of sensational ride by Shafiq.

Settling one off the rail in seventh, she was patiently ridden and travelled well when eight lengths off the pace at the 600m. Coursing clear around the sweeping home turn, Swing Note was clearly headed to her outside at the 200m but such is the class of Shafiq that he was able to extract the necessary spirit from the mare and she lifted to an advantage in a great three way finish.

“Suppy (Shafiq) is a massive asset in the saddle and it was needed in what was a pretty tough day,” said Richards, referring to the win by Swing Note, following the tragedy earlier on.

“It started at 3 a.m. this morning when Black Quail won for Mark (Walker) in Singapore. He's Mum and Dad's horse that they race with Bill and Sandra Duell. Then we had the bad luck at track work this morning and it's progressed from there. Bad luck in the first at Trentham, and it's turned around with three wins and three wins at Riccarton.

“I'm very thankful to the whole team, because I can't do this on my own and to have Dad and the team down in the South Island doing such a great job is just fantastic.

“Often in the Te Akau model it's worked to get horses down to Riccarton early and the results speak for themselves. This mare won her first two starts in this campaign by big margins over 1400m and 1600m, but can become dour quite quickly, so we were mindful of not stepping her up in distance too soon. We were scratching our heads after her last run, but just put it down to the heavy track and she's certainly turned it around in a race that we picked out for her a fair while ago.”

Swing Note became the fourth Spring Classic winner for Te Akau, following Grazia a year earlier, Viana (Volksraad) in 2013, and Wholfwhistle (O'Reilly) in 2014.

Richards suggested that Swing Note could now target the $74,100 Metropolitan Handicap (Listed, 2500m) on the first day of the cup carnival, Saturday 10 November, at Riccarton.

Swing Note was strapped by Joe Stan.