Faulkner banking on a smooth operation in Metropolitan
Matt Markham - Raceform • November 7th, 2025 10:57 AM • 3 min read
Everything South Canterbury horsewoman Steph Faulkner has been working towards with her consistent performer Smooth Operator is hopefully set to come to fruition over the coming two weekends at Riccarton.
A string of strong performances earlier this year in the lead-up to winter left Faulkner feeling like she had a horse capable of tackling the New Zealand Cup on the final day of the Cup Week carnival, and so far she couldn’t have asked for a better preparation.
“He was superb in the campaign before winter over the longer distances, and we sort of sat down and thought about the Cup,” Faulkner told RaceFoorm. “Once we decided it was where we wanted to head, we started working backwards from there.”
Fifth-up from that spell in Saturday’s Listed Nautical Insurance Metropolitan Trophy – the key lead-up race to the New Zealand Cup seven days later – the six-year-old son of Turn Me Loose is ready to rock and roll.
“I don’t think I could have asked for anything more from him. Then again, he’s just that sort of horse who never really lets you down, he’s just so genuine.
“It’s been the perfect build-up. He was very unlucky in the Spring Classic last start, he just had nowhere to go, but it showed us he was right on track for the next two assignments.”
A winner of six with more than $180,000 in the bank, Smooth Operator owes Faulkner and his owners nothing. But there’s a real confidence that he can be a contender in both the Metropolitan and the Cup.
“The 3200m of the Cup is ideal. He’s got such a high cruising speed, and every time you think he’s coming to the end of it, he seems to find another gear. We’re really happy with where we are at and looking forward to seeing what he can do.”
Tina Comignaghi will be back in the saddle on Saturday and all going well in the Cup next week as well, where Smooth Operator is rated a $16 chance in the futures market.
“Tina was being pretty hard on herself for not getting him clear in the Spring Classic, but it was just one of those things in racing. We came back with a horse, and he pulled up from it beautifully, so that was the main thing.
“Not much worries him, he gets home, licks the bowl and looks forward to doing it all again.”
In other stable news, Faulkner said that one of her stable stars Richard Stomper was underway with his recovery following a nasty fall in the North Canterbury Cup at Riccarton in September.
He was the first horse to go down in the incident and has undergone surgery to fix a collapsed airway.
“They’ve put a titanium rod in to try and repair it, it had collapsed.
“There were also 10 bits of bone fragment floating around in his head as well, so he’s been through a fair bit, but is on the road to recovery.”
Faulkner said there was no timeframe surrounding when or even if Richard Stomper might be able to return to work, but she wasn’t rushing anything with the horse who was good enough to line up in last year’s TAB Mile during Cup Week.
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