Jim Wallace’s three-year-old pairing of Liberty Park and Skipper’s Canyon fought out a tight finish to the HB Farmers Transport Ltd (1600m) at Woodville on Sunday, with the former coming out on top in a stable quinella.
Liberty Park was favoured over his stablemate narrowly in the market, which had Croix De Guerre favoured at $3.30. The favourite was quickly away from the gates and lead throughout the running, while Liberty Park and Skipper’s Canyon settled alongside each-other near the tail of the field.
As they turned for home, Skipper’s Canyon veered to the inside for Amber Riddell and Liberty Park soon followed, finding plenty in the closing stages under Kate Hercock to score by a half-length.
Wallace was rapt with the result and anticipates the best is yet to come for Liberty Park, a son of Ocean Park who may be set for the Gr.3 Elsdon Park Wellington Stakes (1600m) in ten days’ time.
“I thought he was very good, I think he’s a very smart horse coming up,” he said.
“He’s still learning his trade, but I think he’ll be a better-than-average stayer and I really like the horse.
“I don’t really know where he’ll go next, it will depend a bit on the weather, but we might have a throw at the stumps at the three-year-old race at Otaki on the 28th.”
He was equally pleased with the effort of Skipper’s Canyon, who added another minor placing to his record after finishing second to Connello at Trentham, who went on to run a gallant fifth in the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) on Saturday.
“He was solid, he probably wanted a little bit more cut in the ground, but he’s fit and racing well, he’s a decent sort of horse,” Wallace said.
Wallace bred both horses under his Ardsley Stud banner, and after both failed to sell at the National Yearling Sales and Ready-To-Run Sales, he retained them to train in his own right.
“My wife and I bred them both and offered them at the yearling sales, and again at the Ready To Runs, so when we couldn’t find buyers, fortunately I am able to do a little bit with them myself,” he said.
“It’s very satisfying, if you don’t sell horses at the sales then it can be challenging to keep them on to train, but fortunately, these two have seemed to pass the test.”
Based at Opaki, Wallace has a small team of other horses in work, with Merkel, a Reliable Man filly, one to watch for the future.
“I have a filly called Merkel that I really rate, but she’s had no end of problems and has been off the scene. She was supposed to race about three months ago, but things have gone wrong and she had a pretty decent accident which required further time off,” Wallace said.
“She’s about ready to go back into work.
“Other than that, we have bits and pieces here and there, but those are the three mainstays at this stage.”