Canterbury trainers dominate Auckland Cup heats
Peter Fenemor • January 19th, 2026 1:20 PM • 3 min read
It’s a Canterbury dominated $80,000 Auckland Cup final next Sunday at the Manukau Stadium with seven of the finalists being prepared by trainers located within the Crusaders territory.
Sunday’s four Auckland Cup 527m heats saw outstanding performances with the Dave Fahey and Katie Wyllie mentored NZ Cup winner Original Warrior opening proceedings with his stunning pace-making 30.41 heat win.
Gamely chasing him home 5.25 lengths behind to book his final field position was the perennial Group One finalist Let Him Cook for Matt Roberts and Jack Johnson.
It was a masterful training effort by Garry Cleeve when he produced the fresh up Zestful, who was resuming from a five-month spell, to stylishly take out the second heat with his 30.66 chase.
The Roberts and Johnson trained stayer Chief Dribble flicked on the turbo chargers when he rocketed home late to snatch his second placing just a half-length behind.
The only northern trained finalist will be the Sam Lozell and Georgie Clark trained Opawa Stacy who refused to flinch when she produced her 30.73 pace-making heat win.
Cleeve will be returning with Zestful’s litter brother Stuck Throttle who was bold when claiming his 1.25 length heat second to Opawa Stacy.
Last year’s Auckland Cup runner-up Paw Bradley indicated that he’s ready to go one better in this edition when he delivered his potent freewheeling 30.33 heat win for Craig Roberts.
Fahey and Wyllie advanced to the final with the second placed It’s Okay after he finished 4.25 lengths astern of Paw Bradley.
Just one of the warmly supported sprinters prevailed in the five 318m Railway Sprint heats.
Jerry Cola underlined his class when he kicked clear to secure his 18.33 heat win for the Fahey and Wyllie training partnership.
The Lisa Cole prepared Criminal Minds confirmed his potential when he boldly chased home Jerry Cola for his 1.25 length heat second.
Cleeve enjoyed a really successful afternoon as his pair of Auckland Cup finalists will be joined by two Railway Sprint heat winners.
Max Effort has really come of age as was evidenced by his strong finishing 18.36 heat win. Kennelmate Sugar Fix finished resolutely to snatch her 18.43 heat win.
Paw Maven provides Craig Roberts with a Railway finalist with his solid 1.25 length heat second to Max Effort.
Local conditioners Jared Udy and Denise Cottam will parade two sprinters to the 318m traps next Sunday. Simek has been a consistent Manukau sprinter and that consistency was rewarded with his dashing 18.39 heat victory.
Kennelmate Kiwi Sea was gallant when after setting the pace, he was gunned late by Sugar Fix when going under by a head margin.
Local trainers, the sisters Lisa and Tracey Craik will be lining up Portland Coco who used his strength to land his 18.55 heat win.
Sunday’s two Group One finals will be supported by numerous other feature races in what will be an afternoon of high-class premier chasing action.
There will be rewards for oncourse patrons on Sunday where a Sky City Stopover package can be won, while a lucky patron will walk away with a Zip Compact Air Fryer.
