Let Him Cook flies to his Ashburton Cup win
Peter Fenemor • June 23rd, 2025 10:38 AM • 5 min read
Determined chasing by Let Him Cook saw him being rewarded with victory in last Thursday’s $10,000 Ashburton Cup.
The Matt Roberts prepared chaser stalked the pacesetting Boldy Go throughout, gaining the upper paw during the run home to strongly claim his bold 30.08 525m win by a two-length margin.
Boldy Go, who has only recently resumed racing from a six-month spell, was gallant when finishing second for his conditioners Dave Fahey and Katie Wyllie, while his kennelmate Opawa Archer gamely stuck on another two-lengths behind for his third placing.
“Yes, he raced super with it being one of his better performances. As everyone knows, there’s two or three different versions of Let Him Cook. When he is on his game, he’s one of the better dogs around.
“He jumped good enough to secure a nice run behind Boldly Go. It worked out perfectly for him, finishing strongly,” said Roberts about the consistent son of Hooked On Scotch and Gracias Maestro who he has now guided to 20 wins and 18 minor placings from 64-races, accumulating $106,093 in stake earnings for his owner Steve Hurd, who missed Thursday’s win.
“Yes, it was one of the few times that Steve hasn’t been on course to watch Let Him Cook race. We jokingly said to him that he wasn’t allowed to be on course anymore when he races,” chuckled Roberts.
Let Him Cook is backing up at today’s Southland meeting where he takes on another open-class field in the Top Class Run (M3 R10) over 457m where he owns the field best 25.68 457m time.
“It is a handy field of proven Ascot Park greyhounds who are going nice races. He is feeling really good and had come through Thursday as good as gold,” confirmed Roberts.
The New Zealand Cup runner-up Let Him Cook has been a competitive Ascot Park chaser as seen by his six wins and six minors from his 15 457m races on the world’s southern-most located greyhound track. Included was a win in the Group 2 Colin Keen Memorial.
And it is a busy week looming for Matt Roberts as he heads to Auckland to attend Sunday’s 2025 Entain Industry Excellence Awards.
Roberts is joined by fellow trainers Katie Wyllie and Jamie Pruden as finalists for the Greyhound Excellence Award.
Lisa Cole dominates NZ Futurity heats
The Lisa Cole prepared More Magic threw down the gauntlet to his New Zealand Futurity rivals when delivering his searing Friday 29.83 520m heat win.
More Magic’s heat time was considerably faster than the other two-Cole trained heat winners with Big Time Maestro clocking 30.37, while Boom Dynamite returned 30.32.
Cole also provides two other finalists for Friday’s $30,000 Group 1 final with Big Time Toby finishing second in his heat, while Big Time Ashton was one of the quickest heat third placegetters.
Three Canterbury prepared greyhounds will join the Cole team for the decider. Garry Cleeve mentored his pair of littermates to complete their heat assignments in second placings.
Stuck Throttle pushed Big Time Maestro to a half-length margin, while Zestful led the chase home behind the low flying More Magic three-lengths astern of him. In doing so he recorded the second fastest overall heat time.
Completing Friday’s final field will be the Dylan Voyce conditioned Perfect Harry who completed his task 2.5 lengths behind Big Time Maestro in third.
More Magic will be chasing after his second Group 1 title for the season on Friday after winning the Auckland Cup in January.
Eight winners during the evening saw the high-flying Cole kennels finishing the meeting with 704 training successes for the current season and just under $2.9 million in stake earnings.
