RACING: Mixed fortunes for Bay couple | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

Hawke's Bay couple Richard and Liz Wood experienced mixed fortunes with two of their horses last weekend.

The Woods race the high class two-year-old Jimmy Choux, who had no luck in the running when finishing sixth in Saturday's Group 3 $70,000 Waikato Stud Two-year-old Classic at New Plymouth. But they picked up a A$50,000 race win in Melbourne on Friday night with the talented mare Chouxmaani.

Chouxmaani was the winner of three races in New Zealand for Otaki trainer Karen Zimmerman before being transferred to the Australian stable of Simon Morrish last spring. The Minardi mare has since won two more races in Victoria.

She bolted in by 2 1/2 lengths in a Rating 82 fillies & mares event over 1600 metres at Moonee Valley on Friday night, in the hands of top Australian jockey Damien Oliver.

Richard Wood paid $20,000 for Chouxmaani from the festival session of the 2006 Karaka yearling sales. She is out of the unraced Bigstone mare Sefidi and from a successful American family.

Jimmy Choux would have finished a lot closer in Saturday's feature two-year-old race at the Taranaki meeting had he been able to get a clear run over the final stages. The Thorn Park colt became pocketed on the fence early in the home straight and was involved in a bumping duel with Cellarmaster when trying to get out.

Jimmy Choux was knocked off balance for several strides and, when he finally started to stretch out again, he had to change ground sharply to avoid the heels of other runners.

Trainer John Bary said Jimmy Choux has taken no harm from the run and will now head to Ellerslie on March 13 for the Group 1 $200,000 Diamond Stakes (1200m).

PEREFECT RECORD

Hastings-trained Strive maintained a perfect record for his Hawke's Bay owner-breeder Ken Browne when successful in the $7000 Viv Anson Memorial Gold Cup (1850m) at Sunday's second day of the Wairoa meeting.

``I've now raced three horses at Wairoa and they have all won,'' a delighted Browne said after Sunday's win. ``The others were Big Squander, many years ago, and Jove.''

Jove broke down when winning an 1850-metre race on the first day of the 1997 Wairoa meeting and never raced again for six months. He came back and recorded another win and six seconds after that.

Strive has also had his racing career interrupted by injury. The big Danske five-year-old suffered a tendon tear after finishing third in a maiden race at Taupo in August 2008 and was off the scene for more than 12 months.

He cleared maiden ranks with a game win over 1600 metres at Hastings on New Year's Day and has now had two wins, a third and a fourth from 10 starts.

Browne bred Strive out of a Paris Opera mare Trove and races the horse in partnership with his close friend and neighbour, Peter Grieve. Both men were present at Wairoa to celebrate Sunday's win.

Trove was the winner of two races and Browne now has an unraced San Luis three-year-old gelding out of the mare and a yearling colt by Gold Centre.

``And she is now back in foal to Gold Centre,'' he said.

Strive was one of two Hastings-trained winners at this year's two day Wairoa meeting and both were from the stable of Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen.

The other was Just Call Me Bond, who followed up a close second on his home track last month with a decisive 2 1/2 length victory in an $8000 Rating 70 1200-metre race last Thursday.

The four-year-old Pyrus gelding then backed up again on Sunday's second day of the meeting and turned in another good honest race for second.

Bonus $17,000

East Coast Racing's $16,000 trainers' bonus was not struck at Sunday's Wairoa meeting and will now jackpot to $17,000 for the Hawke's Bay meeting at Hastings on March 6.

The bonus is paid to any trainer who wins three races at weekend or public holiday race meetings run in the East Coast area. If more than one trainer gets three wins, the prize will be shared.

It started off at $5000 last season and jackpots by $1000 each time it is not struck.

Three of the strongest stables in the country, those of Mark Walker (Matamata), Graeme and Debbie Rogerson (Tuhikaramea) and John Sargent (Matamata) targeted Sunday's Wairoa meeting with large numbers but they could only manage two wins each.

Instant success

Two of the country's leading jockeys, James McDonald and Samantha Spratt, celebrated success in their first day of riding on the Wairoa track at this year's annual two-day meeting.

Spratt only rode on the first day, last Thursday, where she steered Just Call Me Bond to an all the way win over 1200m. McDonald did not attend the first day of the meeting but was there on Sunday and chalked up three wins and two seconds from his 10 mounts.

Both riders enjoyed their first experience of riding on the Te Kupenga track and both could not get over how short the home straight was.