Derby aim on Ascend The Throne
Te Akau have New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) aspirations in mind for Ascend The Throne following the gelding’s win in yesterday’s Group 2 Waikato Guineas.
After commencing his career with two strong performances over shorter trips, Ascend The Throne looked comfortable in breaking his maiden over 2000 metres on his previous start,
a performance which resulted in him being sent off the $6.90 second-favourite behind Group 1 runner-up Zabmanzor (Almanzor) for yesterday’s race.
Opie Bosson took full advantage of the gelding’s ace draw in barrier one, jumping away efficiently before allowing the hoard of outside runners to cross nearing the first turn. Renegade Rebel (El Roca) worked to take the lead while Bosson bided his time three-back on the fence, and as the pacemaker hung out on the turn, the seas opened for Ascend The Throne at the top of the straight.
As Zabmanzor began to wind-up down the outer, Bosson’s mount kept finding and staved off a dashing late challenge by Mosinvader (Vadamos) to score by a narrow margin, while the Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson-trained winner’s stablemate What You Wish For (Embellish) stormed into third to be beaten a neck.
“Obviously barrier one helped, he got a lovely run and Opie gave him a ten out of ten ride,” said Bergerson.
“Cody Cole’s runner [Renegade Rebel] hung around the corner, so he got the perfect split up the straight. To be fair to the horse, he looked like he was going to be bombed late, but he heard them coming and kicked back so it was a really tough good win.
“We’ve given him a lot of time, and knew once he got over ground, that would be his go. He’s delivering on that and looking very promising.”
Bergerson said the son of Savabeel (Zabeel) will now be prepared for the Avondale Guineas (Gr 2, 2100m) at Ellerslie on February 17, the natural lead in to his grand final two weeks’ later.
“He looks like a really nice Derby chance going forward, so we’ll head to the Avondale Guineas, then onto the Derby,” he said.