Three Starters, Three Winners

A perfect result today for Te Akau NZ trainer Jason Bridgman - he sent three runners to Taranaki and all three return home as winners - a perfect result, a 100% strike rate!!

The first of the three to salute the judge was Pride and Passion - a well deserved win after an injury plagued career as we report:

While it has been some time coming, Pride And Passion (5 m Encosta De Lago - Calaway Gal, by Clang) proved far too good for her rivals in the Boof Fleming Memorial 1200 metres on Dec. 23 at New Plymouth. It was a gem of a ride by Te Akau stable rider Matt Cameron.

Te Akau principal David Ellis purchased Pride And Passion at the 2010 Magic Millions Sale on the Gold Coast for $280,000. Her dam, Calaway Gal, won the 2002 Golden Slipper (Gr. 1, 1200m) in the hands of jockey Scott Seamer.

Calaway Gal covered the six furlongs (1200m) in 1:08.81 and in the process lowered the 1993 race record set by Bint Marscay (Marscay), 1:08.88. The ‘tough and gutsy' Queensland filly, trained by Bruce Brown at Doomben, Calaway Gal had a record a five wins from seven starts following her victory in the A$2.5m feature for two-year-olds and earned stakes of $1,797,230.

“It was a great result and running 1:10.07 it was a very good gallop,” said Te Akau trainer Jason Bridgman, of the mare now in foal to Burgundy (Redoute's Choice) and eligible for racing until the end of February 2014.

“She and Burgundy were the pick of them as young horses,” said Bridgman. “She was the best filly and he was the best colt, and now they're in foal.

“It is a fantastic result for the patient owners that have given her the time she needed after going amiss and requiring surgery to remove bone chips, on a couple of occasions. She always showed a tremendous amount of ability in training and the owners are finally rewarded.

“Because of unsoundness through her spring preparation it was decided to put her in foal and that we would then try and get what we could for the remainder of her racing career. We've had a bit of luck and she has been able to win quite well, in what is a very satisfying result."

Pride and Passion is raced by Christopher Grace, Alan Abel ONZM and Christine Abel, Trevor Beyer, Lance & Lee Perry and Judith Ray.

Picture credit - www.raceimages.co.nz