Group Two winner Habana has bounced back from a health scare and will make a welcome return to action in Saturday’s Elsdon Park (1300m) at Ellerslie.
The Zoustar gelding has won eight of his 21 starts and more than $420,000 in stakes, headed by a victory in last year’s Gr.2 Rich Hill Mile (1600m).
Habana was last seen on October 24 at Ellerslie, where he was beaten by a long head by Meaningful Star in a 1600m open handicap.
“He was coming up well, but then he had a bout of colic just before Christmas and they ended up having to operate on him,” trainer Lance Noble said. “Thankfully he’s made a full recovery, but it obviously ended up ruling him out for the whole summer.
“That’s a bit of a shame when you look at what El Vencedor has been doing this season. Those two horses clashed a few times last summer, and we managed to beat him in the Rich Hill Mile and the Fulton Family Stakes (Listed, 1500m). So it makes you wonder what might have been, but we’ve still got the horse, which is obviously the main thing.”
Noble will use Saturday’s $65,000 open sprint as a stepping stone towards the Gr.3 Easter Handicap (1600m) at Ellerslie on April 19. Habana will attempt to become the second consecutive winner of that race for Cambridge Stud owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay, who won it with top-class mare Snazzytavi last year. Habana himself finished second behind White Noise in the Easter Handicap in 2023.
“He looks good,” Noble said. “He’s fully matured now and hasn’t been over-raced, so there’s no reason to think he can’t get back to his best.
“It’s getting quite late in the season now, so he’ll probably just have a couple of runs this time in and then we’ll save him for the spring. He’ll run on Saturday, and then the plan is to go to the Easter from there.
“He’s drawn 14 on Saturday and has to carry 61.5kg, so he faces a pretty big task. But we need to get a run into him before the Easter and this fits in well.”
Noble’s other runner at Ellerslie on Saturday is two-year-old filly Heloisa in the Entain/NZB Insurance Pearl Series (1200m).
In her only previous start, Heloisa ran third at Matamata behind Tajana and Hostility. Both of those rivals went on to place behind La Dorada in last Saturday’s Gr.1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m).
“It was pleasing to see the two that beat her go on to run second and third in the Group One,” Noble said. “She had to do a bit of work to lead in that debut race, so it wasn’t a bad effort. She’s improved with the run and I’ve been very happy with her. If that form stacks up, she should be a nice chance.
“We’ll see how she goes on Saturday, but we could look at taking her back to Ellerslie for the Star Way Stakes (Listed, 1200m) in a couple of weeks’ time. She’s a really nice filly that I think is going to be even better at three.”
Heloisa comes from the first New Zealand crop by Cambridge Stud shuttle stallion Hello Youmzain. The Lindsays have already seen their colours carried to two-year-old victories at Ellerslie by Hello Youmzain fillies Remala and Lucy In The Sky.
“It would be nice for another member of our stable to be a two-year-old winner in his first crop,” Noble said. “I’ve got quite a few of them and I really like them all. They’ve always looked like they would start to come into their own in the second half of their two-year-old seasons and go on with it at three, and I think that’s how they’re tracking.”
Habana and Heloisa could kick off a big day for the Lindsays, whose colours will also be carried by last-start Gr.1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) winner Joliestar in the Gr.1 TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) at Randwick. – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
