Wellington Cup Day lives up to tradition
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • February 5th, 2026 3:36 PM
There’s something intangible about Wellington Cup Day, a special occasion that despite Trentham’s lynchpin race being relegated from its former glory to Group Three status, has still managed to preserve its aura.
That was evident yet again last weekend when the Upper Hutt venue turned on a warm and breezy welcome to a big crowd of locals and others from near and far, then treated them to a quality day’s racing. A Cup tradition of unpredictability took punters by surprise yet again, continuing an extraordinary timeline through the upset winner of the day’s marquee race, Awapuni mare Manzor Blue.
Off a lowly 67 rating with a record of just two wins from 20 starts, the Almanzor mare lined up as an unwanted $86 longshot. While not quite on the scale as previous $100-plus rank outsiders Simon de Montfort in 1972 and Miss Bailey in 1999, a quick calculation lands at gaps of exactly 27 years between each of the three wins.
For trainer Lisa Latta and jockey Kate Hercock, this was their first success in the NZCIS-sponsored two-miler. Latta has long been one of the lower North Island’s most respected trainers, and for good measure she also saddled up the third placegetter, recent stable newcomer Be Real.
While the winner is only just hitting her straps midway through her five-year-old season, Saturday brought down the curtain on Be Real’s racing career. Bred and raced by Cambridge’s Chequers Stud, the Iffraaj mare’s previous four wins in and around Sydney were under the training of Brad Widdup before she returned home last spring to be mated with Proisir. Once confirmed in foal, she resumed her career with Latta in the hope of adding black type to her record and went close when fourth in the Listed Marton Cup on the first day of the Trentham carnival.
With a 115-day pregnancy – five days short of the maximum time allowed under the Rules of Racing to continue racing – the clock was ticking when Be Real lined up on Saturday and it was a case of mission accomplished as she secured a black-type placing by a short half-head over the favourite Rosso.
Splitting the Latta pair was another from Awapuni, the Mike Breslin-trained Crouch, who replicated his second placing to Wolfgang in last year’s race with another brave performance.
Hounded by ongoing delays in course-proper renovations, the past couple of years have been tough for all trainers based at the lower North Island’s biggest training centre, not only in their daily routines but also in the need to travel to every regional race meeting.
Saturday’s trifecta result was testament to the collective resilience of Awapuni trainers and one that deserves special mention.
Adversity of a quite different sort has been part of Kate Hercock’s life for the past year and more, dating back to the unexpected death in late 2024 of her 52-year-old partner Danny Champion. Typical of the resilience that has marked her journeyman career, Hercock soldiered on through the second half of last season to arrive at a career-best tally of 57, and Saturday’s big win took her to 28 at the midway point of the current season.
Having encouraged Latta to proceed with Wellington Cup plans after Manzor Blue’s midfield finish in Rating 75 grade on the middle day of the carnival, Hercock sought the advice of former leading rider and now jockey mentor Kim Clapperton.
“Don’t rush her and ride for luck, that’s your best chance,” Clapperton said, and Hercock rode to the letter, last in a strung-out field by the midway stage and when the time came, pinching runs as they appeared but receiving anything but an uninterrupted path.
Manzor Blue was still well out of contention as the field levelled for the run home, but with Clapperton’s words in mind, she angled towards the inside and found clear air in time to dive past Crouch and hit the line with a short-neck margin.
The on-course crowd included Wellington businessman Pat Vinaccia, best-known in racing colours as co-founder with Albert Bosma more than 20 years of major syndicator Go Racing.
“This means so much to us,” Vinaccia said. “I remember standing here when Starrybeel was a desperately unlucky second in the (2022) Cup, so it’s great to get the breaks this time.”
A similar local flavour pervaded other major results on the day, most notably The Precursor’s win in the $350,000 Life Direct Remutaka Classic and Ultimate Habit’s Gr.2 Jennian Homes Lowland Stakes.
The Precursor stamped his staying potential as he carried the colours of Wellington painting and decorating business owner – and keen Trentham sponsor – Graham Stewart to a dominant win in the 2100-metre Remutaka Classic. Stewart nearly made it a double with Afternoon Siesta, who took her record to three wins and two seconds from five starts when runner-up in the final race of the carnival, the Turkington Forestry Douro Cup.
The Precursor, a 17-hands-plus son of St Jean – who gained fame as the sire of last year’s Caulfield-Melbourne Cup winner Half Yours – was sourced online by Stewart as a single-race winner in Australia. His latest win was his second from just three starts from the Cambridge stable of Roger James and Robert Wellwood, who will put their skills to plotting a path towards higher staying honours for what is shaping as an extreme talent.
Another budding talent to emerge last Saturday was Ultimate Habit, who added her name to a list of three-year-old fillies breaking their maiden in black-type company this season when she won the Lowland Stakes, leg nine in the NZB Filly of the Year Series.
A second consecutive Lowland winner for New Plymouth trainer Robbie Patterson and jockey Craig Grylls after last year’s series winner Leica Lucy, the daughter of Embellish is raced by a partnership that includes her veteran Hawke’s Bay breeders Graham and Isabell Roddick.
The most famous member of the Roddick line is Hall of Fame galloper Rough Habit, while others include Gr.1 Hawke’s Bay Spring Classic winner Addictive Habit and Citi Habit, a Group Three winner on both sides of the Tasman.
Ultimate Habit’s ownership group includes veteran rugby commentator Grant Nisbett, who found himself in familiar posture behind the microphone at the Lowland Stakes presentation and the chance to remind his audience of Trentham’s place in the New Zealand racing landscape.
“We’ve got to head up north to win the New Zealand Oaks this year, but that’s okay,” the loyal Wellingtonian and Trentham regular said. “Once we’ve done that, we’ll bring the race back to where it belongs!”
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