Juvenile continues hot stable form

Tony Pike’s hot holiday trot continued at New Plymouth on Saturday with a satisfying family victory courtesy of the two-year-old Boodles.

The Cambridge trainer enjoyed a memorable Boxing Day at Ellerslie with Allez Eagle and Huka Eagle successful while Rock Diva, Polish and Sancerre gave bold accounts of themselves with second place finishes.

“It was a great day and I thought I had five winning chances, but a couple of them didn’t have that much luck – you shouldn’t be too greedy though and they all ran well,” Pike said.

Luck was taken out of the equation with Boodles, who cleared the barrier smartly for rider Darryl Bradley and led all the way to win the Dave & Eddie 2YO at the Pukekura Raceway.

The performance came as no surprise to Pike, who prepares the youngster for his parents Wayne and Vicki.

“He’s pretty smart and he did things well off the back of one trial,” he said.

“I don’t know much about the ones he beat, but he couldn’t have done it any easier. He’s a lovely-actioned horse and we’ve always had a good opinion of him.

“I’ll see how he pulls up and we’ll probably look for another race in about a month. I think he’s capable of winning a really nice race in the autumn.”

A son of Showcasing, Boodles is out of the winning Bertolini mare Molly’s Dolly and Pike’s parents will offer a full-brother to the juvenile in their Longlands Stud draft at Karaka next year.