New Zealand-bred gelding Oak Hill lifted his ever-improving career to another new level with his first black-type victory in the A$300,000 Gr.2 Here For The Horses Rubiton Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
The five-year-old son of Per Incanto has now had 19 starts for eight wins, four placings and A$717,140 in stakes.
The Rubiton was the fifth start at stakes level for Oak Hill, who had resumed with a last-start second in the Listed W.J. Adams Stakes (1000m), and earlier in the season was only three lengths from the winner when 11th in the Gr.1 Moir Stakes (1000m) in September. He was previously unplaced in two other Listed events.
Oak Hill had a few factors in his favour leading into Saturday, including a potent second-up record that had seen him record two wins and a second from four previous starts in that state.
Ridden by Damian Lane, Oak Hill sat in fourth until the home turn and then quickened smartly at the top of the straight. He finished over the top of the front-running Don’t Hope Do and got up in the final few strides to score by a long head.
It was a winning reunion for Oak Hill and Lane, who rode him to four victories between May 2024 and his relocation last autumn from the stable of the late Mike Moroney into the care of Ben, Will and JD Hayes.
“I love this horse, I’ve won four races on him,” Lane said. “It’s good to be back on him.
“He’s been a difficult horse to manage in the past. If you go too forward, he’ll do it the wrong way around and get his head up and over-race.
“A lot of those early days with Mike, it was about teaching him to settle and run, settle and run. He’s really starting to put it together mentally.
“He’s always had the talent and you can put him a touch closer and he’s got the turn of foot still.”
The Rubiton was Oak Hill’s third win for the Hayes brothers at Lindsay Park.
“That was a terrific effort by Oak Hill,” JD Hayes said. “I thought he put the writing on the wall last start when he returned. We’ve taken all the gear off his head and he’s just starting to really learn his craft.
“He’s a late learner and a horse that we inherited from the late, great Mike Moroney, and he is getting better each preparation.
“I think we could look at the Oakleigh Plate (Gr.1, 1100m, February 21) now. Why not?”
Oak Hill was bred by the Mahoenui Partnership and is by Little Avondale Stud’s Per Incanto out of the High Chaparral mare Isstoora.
That makes Oak Hill a half-brother to Desert Lightning, who has won seven races, including the Gr.1 TAB Classic (1600m), Gr.2 Avondale Guineas (2100m), Gr.3 Sandown Stakes (1500m) and the $1 million Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic (1600m).
Oak Hill was offered in Little Avondale’s Book 1 draft at Karaka 2022, where Paul Moroney Bloodstock and Ballymore Stables bought him for $180,000. – NZ Racing Des
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