Wewillrock, one of last season’s progressive three-year-olds, bounced back to winning form on his home track on Saturday when he took out a rating 75 1200m contest at Hastings.
The Guy Lowry-trained son of El Roca finished off that campaign with a pair of Group Three placings behind talented performers Sword of State and Bonny Lass in the Almanzor Trophy (1200m) and Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) respectively, before heading to the winter spelling paddock with a win over 1100m.
Given a decent break by Lowry, he resumed with a tough run for fourth at Awapuni in March before finishing third behind Sumi at the same venue on April 1.
Those two runs cleaned him up nicely for his latest test and he emerged with flying colours after sitting second throughout before dashing clear at the top of the home straight and comfortably holding out a late charge by runner-up Belluci to record career victory number four.
“He is a very nice horse and we have purposely raced him quite sparingly as we think when he fully matures he can be quite a talent,” Lowry said.
“He was always going to be a little soft first up and those first two runs brought his fitness along nicely and I thought he was pretty near right today.”
Lowry will now consider options on both sides of the Tasman with the talented gelding.
“We think he is good enough to measure up in Australia, so we are going to play it by ear a little bit from here,” he said.
“I don’t want to take him over there when he is on the way down, so we might take a punt and go to either Brisbane or Sydney in the near future.
“I will wait to see how he pulls up from this run, as he may need one more here and then we will decide.
“If I don’t think he is ready yet, as his manners still need some sorting out, we might even wait six months, but he will go across at some stage.
“Once he learns to settle better in his races, he will be well suited to grade racing and more over there.”
Wewillrock is the grandson of well-performed racemare Wazawatsyn, who won ten races including three at stakes level. He was a $35,000 yearling purchase by Lowry under his Game Lodge banner from the Westbury Stud draft during the Book 2 sale at Karaka in 2020. – NZ Racing Desk
