Former northerner Martell and heavy-track specialist Vamos spearheaded a dominant Sunday afternoon at Gore for trainer Kelvin Tyler.
The Riverton horseman scored a winning treble on the eight-race card, alongside three runner-up placings and two fourths from his eight starters. He got off to the perfect start in the opener when homebred More Sass put away a maiden field comfortably over 1100m.
More Sass, like her well-performed sister Lady Sass, has a few quirks, so Tyler was rapt to see a more professional display from the now 4-year-old.
"She’s got loads of ability, but unfortunately the brain doesn’t quite follow sometimes," Tyler said.
"After last year, we gave her a good break to let her mature mentally, and she has come a long way.
"Her work has been really good, but you never quite know what you’re going to get with her. It wasn’t too strong of a maiden field, so it was good to see her do that.
"I have a couple of Ancient Spirits by the mare [Lady In Charge] who are ticking away quietly, but the family all have similar traits, not as bad as More Sass, but they have a bit of cheekiness amongst them.
"It’s just a matter of managing her as best we can. Hopefully, she can keep going forward from here."
Later in the day, it was the turn of Martell, who joined Tyler’s barn after performing up to open class in the North Island for Jim Collett.
He showed that ability first-up winning at Wingatui earlier in the month and, stepping out in the Advance Agriculture Open 1100, he was patiently ridden by apprentice Floor Moerman and hugged the inside rail to pick up the leader in the straight and kick clear by 1¾ lengths.
Tyler was surprised to see the son of El Roca starting at a price of $4.80, knowing the ability he possesses.
"I’m not a betting person, but I couldn’t believe the odds. He’s a really good horse and showed that again on Sunday," he said.
"We’ll just stick down this end of the country going forward. There are some nice races coming up and he’ll go to Invercargill in a couple of weeks — there’s a good race there [open 1200m]. As long as the tracks have plenty of give in them and he’s going well, we’ll carry on."
Tyler bookended the programme with a quinella in the Kevin Doyle Memorial Open 1800, which by the 500m, was clearly going to be a battle between Vamos and stablemate Prince Alby.
Prince Alby looked to be cruising up to Vamos, who had led throughout under Moerman, but when she asked for an effort, race fitness was on his side and the gelding extended the margin to eight lengths, with nearly 20 lengths back to Call Me Al in third.
The win followed Vamos’ 14½ length romp in a rating 75 over 2000m at Riccarton last month, and Tyler had expected the son of Vadamos to have the edge on his other runner on this occasion.
"His work has been unreal and he loves wet tracks, and he just had that race fitness over Alby," he said.
"We put the visor blinkers on for the Winter Cup [group 3, 1600m] and they probably just went a bit quick for him in that, but they’ve certainly worked well for him since. As long as the tracks have a bit of give in them, Vamos will stick down here and possibly drop back for a mile [1600m] race at Invercargill.
"Alby is coming up quite nicely and still has to strip his coat a bit, so he’ll have plenty of improvement to come out of that. He is hopefully on the path for the New Zealand Cup [group 3, 3200m]." — LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
By Jess de Lautour
