Trainer Stephen Marsh had three major goals for the 2021/22 racing season and he claimed the third of them at Oamaru when the well-travelled Summer Festival (Poet’s Voice) took out Sunday’s Crombie And Price Ltd Oamaru Cup (1600m).
Marsh recently went past the 100-win mark in a season for the first time and last week made it 900 career training wins when successful with Oseleta (Deep Field) at Ruakaka.
His third major aim for the season was to eclipse the $3 million mark in prizemoney won and with the win of Deels Done (NZ) (Dundeel) earlier in the day and the subsequent victory by Summer Festival the collective $37,375 earned was enough to exceed his goal.
The seven-year-old son of Poet’s Voice had to do it the hard way for his mentor as he set the pace for rider Courtney Barnes but was hotly challenged and headed at the 600m.
Barnes angled her mount wide at that point and was joined by race favourite Lord Darci (NZ) (Darci Brahma) with the pair settling down to a torrid home straight battle settled in favour of Summer Festival by a nose at the finish line.
Marsh, who leaves for a ten-day American holiday on Sunday night, was delighted with the results from the day.
“That is very exciting as I’ve been pretty desperate to get to that $3 million mark this season,” he said.
“I was pretty edgy after the races at Rotorua were called off on Saturday as I thought we had several excellent chances and we only had the two runners in today.
“As it turns out they have both won and we’ve managed to get to where we wanted.”
Marsh was quick to pay tribute to the horse who was sent to him by owner Paul Chow, who races him under his TM Racing banner along with a couple of his Hong Kong friends.
“Paul sent him to me and he has proven to be a wonderful old horse,” Marsh said.
“He has really settled in well and has got better as he has gone along.
“He’s not really a true heavy track galloper and I think when he rolled out at the 600m he was doing it himself, as he was probably looking for better ground.
“I did like his chances today as he was down to a very competitive weight with just the 54kgs.
“The way he has won it, we’d be silly not to have a crack at the Winter Cup (Gr.3, 1600m) at Riccarton in a fortnight.
“I will have a chat with his owners, but we might just pay the late nomination for the race as it looks as though the field might drop away a little and he could be in with a real shout.”
Summer Festival is a former European galloper who spent the early part of is career in Italy where he won six of his nine starts including the 2018 Gr.2 Italian Derby (2200m) before being sold to Hong Kong where he failed to win but was placed in five of his 21 starts.
The seven-year-old son of Poet’s Voice then headed to Marsh’s stable in 2021 where he has now won twice to take his career tally to eight wins from 48 starts and over $924,000 in prizemoney.
