Saturday’s Gr.1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa marked another new high point in the career of the ever-improving El Vencedor, who took his career earnings past $1 million with a stunning three-length runaway.
The son of Shocking initially showed promise as a sprinter, winning over 1200m in both New Zealand and Australia as a three-year-old and placing in the Gr.3 Concorde Handicap (1200m) and Listed Newmarket Handicap (1200m) at four.
But El Vencedor has come into his own over longer distances at the ages of five and six, starting with a runner-up finish in last year’s Thorndon Mile (1600m) in his first attempt at Group One level. He followed that up with a fourth in the Gr.1 Otaki-Maori WFA Classic (1600m) and a brilliant breakthrough victory in the Gr.1 Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2000m) at Ellerslie.
El Vencedor’s prospects of matching or even exceeding those weight-for-age heroics in this preparation looked bleak when he finished last of 13 runners in the Gr.1 TAB Mufhasa Classic (1600m) at Trentham in early December, but his turnaround since then has been extraordinary.
Trainer Stephen Marsh has brought the six-year-old back to his very best, while Australian-based jockey Rory Hutchings has clicked superbly with the gelding during his temporary return to New Zealand’s riding ranks this summer.
El Vencedor’s resurgence began with a close third behind Snazzytavi and La Crique in the Gr.1 Zabeel Classic (2000m) at Ellerslie on Boxing Day. He returned to the Auckland track for last Saturday’s Listed Fulton Family Stakes (1500m), which Marsh mainly used as a pipe-opener for the Herbie Dyke. But El Vencedor carried his 61kg topweight to an amazing five-length romp, sending a clear warning to those who were going to oppose him at Te Rapa.
His fixed-odds quote tumbled through the seven days between those two runs, eventually jumping as a $2 favourite in a race turned upside down by the midweek defections of Snazzytavi and Orchestral.
Hutchings initially tried to dictate the terms of Saturday’s $700,000 feature, sending El Vencedor to the lead and turning into the back straight at only a steady tempo. But that plan went out the window when the slackening pace made the South Island raider Matscot over-race, which left his jockey Vinnie Colgan with no option but to allow him to stride forward to the front.
El Vencedor tracked that rival until around the 600m mark, when Hutchings released the brakes and his mount took control of the race again. Within the space of just a handful of big bounds, he put a big gap between himself and the rest of the field.
The chasers went to work in the straight, led by La Crique and the strong-finishing back-markers Whangaehu and Ladies Man, but El Vencedor was out on his own in front.
“This gives me a lot of satisfaction and I’m very proud of the horse,” Marsh said. “We had a plan to run him last Saturday and have him hard fit and ready to go today.
“This takes him well over $1 million now and he’s just gone to another level. He seems to have finally matured.
“He won a 1200m race in Australia early on his career and looked like he could win a Railway (Gr.1, 1200m). He’s bred to stay, but he had never quite put everything together. Now he’s finally done that.”
Hutchings has been in the saddle for El Vencedor’s Zabeel Classic placing, a five-length trial win at Matamata on January 14, and his power-packed performances in the Fulton Family Stakes and Herbie Dyke.
“The reason I came home was to try to ride a big winner, and I’ve knocked it off,” the 29-year-old said.
“The horse gave me an incredible feeling. It’s hard to be that confident in a Group One, but when he let down, I knew they’d have to be very good to catch him. I thought that on Boxing Day at Ellerslie too, and there was no Snazzytavi in this field today.
“I was a little bit worried when the other horse went forward and took over. I’d just got my bloke into a good rhythm, and then that fired him up for probably 50m. But I was able to pop away from the fence and get him back into the rhythm again. The further we went, the stronger he got.
“My arms were getting tired around the 600m, so I said, ‘Time to go, boy. Let’s make them chase us.’ The rest is history.”
Bred and raced by Mark Freeman and David Price, El Vencedor has now had 39 starts for 10 wins, 14 placings and more than $1.2 million in prize-money.
Saturday’s victory also took El Vencedor to the top of the points table for the Rich Hill Champion Middle Distance Series, which carries bonus payments of $300,000 for the horse that finishes first, $150,000 for second and $50,000 for third.
The series will culminate in the Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes at Ellerslie on Champions Day on March 8.
“We’ve still got Ellerslie, his favourite track, to go back to,” Marsh said. “He’s a big boy who’ll probably need to do something else between now and then. We’ll just play around with him and make sure we perfect his preparation.”
By Richard Edmunds, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
