1st NZ Stakes Success for Sir Percy

The impressive three-year-old Sir Andrew (NZ) (Sir Percy) may have booked a ticket to Australia with a narrow victory in the Group 2 $85,000 DHL Hawkes Bay Guineas over 1400m at Hastings on Saturday.

Sir Andrew (NZ) wins the Group 2 DHL Hawkes Bay Guineas at Hastings by a nose.

A graduate of New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Weanling Sale, Sir Andrew confirmed the high opinion his trainer Richard Otto has of the horse with a stakes success at just his third start, to become the first in the southern hemisphere for his young sire.

The son of Sir Percy (Mark of Esteem) was ridden well back by Mark du Plessis with the field going along at an even pace. Sir Andrew had plenty of work to do at the top of the straight as he set out after race favourite All Decked Out (NZ) (Darci Brahma) who had hit the front and broke away from the field.

Sir Andrew produced an electric turn of foot as he dived at All Decked Out on the line in a close finish that had to be decided by the judge.

“Right from day one we have rated him,” stated Otto. “He was pretty green in the run and did a lot wrong so he has a huge amount of improvement in him.”

“We will give him an easy week and see what he is like at the end of it and if I am happy enough he will go to Flemington on Derby Day. There is a mile race for three-year-olds there and then probably two weeks later the Sandown Guineas. After that we will bring him home and look at a Derby campaign in the autumn.

“Sir Percy was a Derby winner himself and he is out of a Royal Academy mare so pedigree-wise there is enough to say that he could run 2400m and he is a lovely relaxed horse with a turn of foot.”

It was the second win from three starts for Sir Andrew who had won on debut on a heavy track before running third on the first day of the Hawke’s Bay Carnival, also on a heavy track. The three-year-old gelding has earned his owners John & Margaret Thompson $59,500 in prizemoney.

Bred by Alan Galbraith, Sir Andrew from the oldest crop of former Rich Hill Stud shuttle stallion Sir Percy, the Group 1 Derby winner and Champion 3YO in GB in 2006. The gelding was purchased by bloodstock agent Paul Willets for $56,000 at NZB’s 2011 National Weanling Sale from Rich Hill Stud.