Boss blows his rivals away at Hawera
The Johno Benner and Hollie Wynyard-trained Boss lived up to his hype when winning the Holly D R (Jack) Gray Painters Maiden (1200m) at Hawera.
The Towkay three-year-old jumped away well today to sit parked before jockey Samantha Collett pushed on for the lead. The Otaki gelding went clear at the top of the straight to leave the rest of the field in his wake, winning comfortably by six lengths over Midnight Poetry with Crafty Crim back in third.
“I’ve thrown some big words around about this horse, like he might be the best one I have sat on,” said Wynyard. “With the horses that have come through our stables, that’s a very big thing.”
The Otaki training partnership have prepared some top-class horses, including Humidor, Vespa, Kingsman and this year’s Karaka Million 3YO Classic (1600m) winner Scott Base.
Boss won his first two trials impressively and then made his debut at Wanganui where he was tardily out of the gates, giving the field five lengths at the start, before running home solidly for fourth.
“He was very impressive in his two trials and was just a bit slow away on debut and did a lot of work,” Collett said.
“They have given him a jump-out to see if he could clear the gates a bit better and today he did that and was able to dominate. He is actually a pretty smart horse, so I look forward to riding him again.”