The South Island’s reigning champion stable will be out in force when the Grand National Carnival kicks off at Riccarton on Saturday.
Michael and Matthew Pitman topped last season’s South Island trainers’ premiership with 54 wins, earning themselves a sixth-place finish overall on the national standings.
The father-son duo will be represented by 10 runners on their home track on Saturday, including a three-pronged attack on the $45,000 Christchurch Casino 29th South Island Awards 13 September Open (1200m).
That trio includes the nine-race winner Makabar, who was a star of last year’s carnival with victories on both Saturdays. He won the 2023 equivalent of this race, beating Midnight Runner and Benaud, then stepped down to Rating 75 company a week later and won again under 60kg.
“He was really good in winning those two races during this carnival 12 months ago,” Michael Pitman said. “He’s going into it in good form again this year. I thought he finished his last race off very nicely (fourth at Oamaru on July 21).
“He loves wet ground – the heavier, the better. Those are the sorts of conditions we’ll be racing on this weekend, so it’ll suit him.”
Epee Beel came of age as an autumn three-year-old, winning the Listed NZB Insurance Stakes (1600m) after placing in the Listed Gore Guineas (1335m) and Listed NZB Airfreight Stakes (1400m).
The daughter of Epaulette was a bold first-up winner in a 1200m Rating 75 at Ashburton on July 4.
“I see the bookies have made her favourite for that open sprint on Saturday, so I hope they’re right,” Pitman said. “Realistically you would have to say she’s a strong chance.
“Warren Kennedy was very impressed with her performance to win first-up over 1200m. That was a really good effort for a horse that got up over 1600m and 2000m in her last preparation. She’s staying at 1200m second-up on Saturday, but we’ve been very happy with her and we don’t see why she wouldn’t run well again.”
The stable’s open sprint trio is rounded out by the 10-year-old Benaud, who will carry just 51kg with apprentice jockey Abdul Najib in the saddle.
The Pitman team has Jetstream and Our Sallyann entered for the Prowess Selling Now on Gavelhouse Plus 3YO (1200m).
“They’re both nice three-year-olds in the making,” Pitman said. “I’d probably slightly favour the filly (Our Sallyann) at this stage of their preparations, and I think track conditions will suit her better.
“Having said that, the other horse is by Ferrando, who had a couple of stakes placegetters on heavy tracks during the winter. He was a duffer in the wet himself, but Rogie (Graeme Rogerson) told me that his progeny are handling those sorts of conditions a lot better than he ever did.
“We might not be running them in this sort of race if it was somewhere like Dunedin, but we’ll have a go at it on our home track. We’ve run in this three-year-old race a number of times over the years and picked up a few wins, and I don’t think this field looks like the strongest edition of the race. Hopefully we can pick up some of the prizemoney.”
Pitman believes there are solid chances throughout the 10-race card.
“We’ve got a pretty handy team across the whole meeting on Saturday,” he said. “The Immigrant loves wet ground. The 1200m will be short enough on Saturday, but we decided to go to this race instead of 1600m because it gives us the option of backing up over 1400m next week.
“Blanche is a tough, honest mare who’s working really well leading into Saturday. With Proserve, you can forget he ran last start – everything went wrong for him that day.”