Mercurial faces heavy track as Jack Taplin gets raceday ride at Te Rapa
Trainer Stephen Marsh is looking forward to putting an old hand and total novice together at Te Rapa today even if they may not combine for victory.
Marsh will, somewhat surprisingly, roll out former group one winner Mercurial in the $40,000 Bayley Country Sprint, a mere $40,000 assignment on a
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NZ Herald
13-06-2025
- NZ Herald
Mercurial faces heavy track as Jack Taplin gets raceday ride at Te Rapa
Trainer Stephen Marsh is looking forward to putting an old hand and total novice together at Te Rapa today even if they may not combine for victory. Marsh will, somewhat surprisingly, roll out former group one winner Mercurial in the $40,000 Bayley Country Sprint, a mere $40,000 assignment on a
NZ Herald
24-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Velocious wins Te Rapa sprint feature and now has Brisbane race in sight
Group 1 winner Velocious bounced back to her brilliant best in the Jarvis Trading (1100m) at Te Rapa on Saturday, raising the possibility of a transtasman mission. The Stephen Marsh-trained filly was New Zealand's champion 2-year-old last season, when she won four of her six starts including the Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) and the Group 1 Sistema Stakes (1200m). Her 3-year-old season has been an up-and-down journey for her connections. There was a wind operation in the spring, then a smart first-up win at Te Aroha in March, then a luckless run in the Group 3 Cambridge Breeders' Stakes (1200m) and a disappointing fifth after a costly slow start at Ellerslie last Saturday. Marsh and owners Go Racing decided to roll the dice and run Velocious in Saturday's $40,000 sprint feature on a seven-day turnaround, and the gamble paid off. Velocious jumped much better and her jockey Michael McNab took up a handy position in third along the fence as Shoes and Illicit Dreams showed the way through the early stages.
NZ Herald
16-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Velocious gets ideal opportunity at Ellerslie to make up for lost season
Which is one reason Velocious heads there today. 'It is her favourite track, she has won a Group 1 and a Karaka Millions there,' says Marsh. 'We are looking at Australia with her, there is a race in Brisbane on June 7 that would suit her but obviously she would need to race well this weekend. 'I think she will. Forget last start when things didn't go her way, she will go a lot better on Saturday.' Velocious (R6, No 1) could hardly come into today's set weights and penalty race better off, carrying only 1kg more than horses just out of maidens even though she is a Group 1 winner of nearly $1 million. She gets the right barrier to settle handy and if she is going to be heading to Sunshine State she would want to be at least paying a dividend today. While that potential trip explains why last season's Juvenile of the Year is racing in a normal race in mid-May, Marsh says there is a different reason Bourbon Empress is a surprise acceptor for the open 1400m today. Already the winner of the Group 2 Rich Hill Mile this season, Bourbon Empress would usually be enjoying her autumn spell before chasing spring Group 1s but Marsh says her appetite is the issue. 'She is such a big, strong mare who does so well we thought if we gave her a long spell, she would do too well and it would be really hard to get the weight off her. 'So she will have one or run races now to tick her over and we haven't totally ruled out her popping over to Australia for a race either.' A horse who has travelled the other way across the Tasman is one Marsh suggests could provide a good start to the day, in a rare opening-race run before noon. 'Hakushu has a lot of ability and actually went to Australia but never raced there,' explains Marsh. 'He is better than maiden grade.' The Cambridge trainer is also campaigning Super Photon (R4, No 1) in a A$150,000 ($163,500) race at Flemington today, up against good mate Andrew Forsman, who has Yaldi in the same race. 'I think Flemington will suit him and I can't believe the odds he is [$34] considering he beat the older horses last start,' says Marsh. Marsh is locked in a battle for the title of New Zealand's leading black-type trainer, with 17 wins at that level, the same as the Walker/Bergerson stable but the latter have the favourite Towering Vision (R4, No 1) in today's $100,000 Skycity Champagne Stakes at Ellerslie. While Marsh may also ultimately have to settle for his usual second on the trainer's premiership as he sits 20 wins behind Walker/Bergerson, he is still proud of his best-ever season, especially at black-type level. 'The staff have done an amazing job and we have had great support from owners,' he says. 'That has enabled us to go to the yearling sales and buy the horses we want and this year we have bought 16 yearlings, which is a lot for us. 'But we have almost sold all of them, with only a couple of small shares in horses who didn't cost a lot of money left but I'd imagine that would go pretty quickly. 'With the huge stake increases in New Zealand and Australia right next door, we realise there is a golden opportunity and we want to make the most of it and take new owners along for the ride.' Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald's Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world's biggest horse racing carnivals.
