Photo: Peter Rubery (Race Images)
New Plymouth gelding Tisse (Belardo) has broken through for a maiden black type success at Trentham, thanks in large part to a well-judged Kelly Myers ride.
Allowed to start at odds of $18 in the Gr.3 Gee & Hickton Thompson Handicap (1600m), Tisse would have been at much longer odds on the final turn as he was several lengths behind the speed.
But Myers kept to the inside of the track, taking gaps that arrived, and Tisse showed a devastating sprint to score by a short neck from The Scunner, who looked to have the race at his mercy when he took the lead 200m from the line.
Favourite Astoria Brooke finished well for third after taking a wide path in the stretch and taking a while to wind up.
“He’s such a grouse horse, I just love him,” Myers said of the Allan Sharrock-trained six-year-old.
“I was following Astoria Brooke the whole way and didn’t want to let her out of my sights. She sort of went out and the gap just presented in front of us and he was an absolute jet.”
Tisse came into the race after finishing seventh in a 1500m handicap at Te Rapa on September 26, and Sharrock’s stable representative Charlotte Schrider said there was a lot of confidence in him.
“Allan was really keen on him, especially with 53 kilos on him and drawn nine,” she said.
“He worked really good and he had a jumpout on Wednesday and he worked brilliantly through that. We took him over a few cross-country jumps on the Thursday and it’s just worked beautifully.
“He showed such tenacity at the line and it was a beautiful ride by Kelly.”
Myers rode Tisse in the jumpout at Stratford and said the feeling she got from that, plus the stable’s belief in the horse, meant she had faith in his prospects leading into the race.
“I think the crew were quite confident to be fair, and you know when Allan’s confident that you can be confident too.”
A $30,000 purchase from the Woburn Farm draft at the 2022 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sales Series, Tisse is owned by The Crow Family Trust. He has now won six of his 26 starts, with his previous best effort at stakes level being a third-place finish in the Listed Rangitikei Gold Cup (1600m) in May.
His unraced dam Miss Percy is a half-sister to Gr.1 Auckland Cup (3200m) winner Titch and to Threepence, the dam of dual Oaks winner Pennyweka.
