Mark Brooks is looking forward to going the extra mile with Jack Romanov when they return to Auckland in a fortnight for their season’s goal.
The Cambridge trainer has supreme confidence in the seven-year-old’s reserves of stamina, which will be put to the ultimate test in the Meadow Fresh Great Northern Steeplechase on September 5.
Brook’s hopes of success were further boosted at Ellerslie on Saturday when Jack Romanov returned a flawless dress rehearsal to win the Pakuranga Hunt Cup.“I didn’t think the three miles would worry him at all and another round in the Northern will suit him even better,” he said.
“He looks better now than he has all season so we’re all pretty happy.”Jack Romanov’s rider Richard Cully kept the frontrunner and favourite Amanood Lad within his sights all the way and served it up to the topweight 800 metres from home.
They had his measure at the top of the straight and, after clearing the last fence safely, they had three and a half lengths to spare on Snodroptwinkletoes with Amanood Lad a further 14 lengths back in third.“It was great and that’s my first Pakuranga Hunt Cup, but it’s the one I want in two weeks’ time,” Cully said.
The 33-year-old established himself as a top jumps jockey in New Zealand when he won the premiership in 2010-11 and shared the title the following season with Richard Eynon before he moved to Victoria in 2013.From a Great Northern perspective, runner-up Snodroptwinkletoes also did his prospects no harm while Amanood Lad is expected to strip a fitter horse in a fortnight. Saturday’s outing was only his second over the big fences since he won the prestige event 12 months’ ago.
