By Jonny Turner\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Tuapeka faithful had to wait but Ideal Crown made it worthwhile when she dashed to victory in the finale on Tuapeka Lodge Cup Day.<\/p>\n
The three-year-old showed a brilliant turn of foot as she scorched along the Ascot Park passing lane to score for trainer Chelsea Faithful and driver Mark Hurrell.<\/p>\n
Ideal Crown is raced by a big group of owners, including four syndicates.<\/p>\n
Many of that big group are from the Tuapeka region and involved with the Tuapeka Harness Racing Club.<\/p>\n
That became obvious as cheers boomed out from the grandstand as Ideal Crown surged to victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this horse and another one I have had for them, they have always asked if they are going to race at our meeting,\u201d Faithful said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor her to do it, it is the cherry on top of her winning the way she did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faithful said she couldn\u2019t have asked for a better way for Ideal Crown to prepare for her upcoming targets at Addington.<\/p>\n
The filly will race over the New Zealand Cup Carnival before tackling her big spring goal, the New Zealand Oaks on November 20.<\/p>\n
The only slight sticking point is which path the three-year-old takes to the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was going to race on (New Zealand) Cup Day in a rating race if she didn\u2019t win today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will have to have another look at things now, but she will probably go to the South Of The Waitaki race and then into the Oaks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ideal Crown heads to Addington with a second in the Northern Oaks already on her resume.<\/p>\n
Faithful will head north with a filly who has returned bigger and stronger since she tripped to Auckland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe might have got faster after her trip north and having a good break over winter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA trip like that would either make or break a horse and she has been great since she\u2019s come back in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if she could run second in an Oaks again would be great and to win it would be a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand Cup Day is the next stop off for Tuapeka Lodge Cup winner, Haley Jaccka.<\/p>\n
A quick beginning and positive early tactics from driver Matthew Williamson set up victory in the Tuapeka feature for trainer Brett Gray.<\/p>\n
Though the mare has a fine record over shorter trips, her recent results over longer distances have Gray eyeing up the Junior Free-For-All on New Zealand Cup Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe seems to love the longer distances and she is getting the hang of the standing starts,\u201d the trainer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the best beginning she has made, today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will go to the Junior Free-For-All, the pace should be on and hopefully it will suit her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tuapeka feature trot winner Duchess Maria will be seen even sooner, with the New Zealand Trotting Oaks scheduled for the Friday night before the New Zealand Cup.<\/p>\n
The three-year-old showed a brilliant turn of foot when clearing out for the easiest of victories for trainer-driver Nathan Williamson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jonny Turner\u00a0 The Tuapeka faithful had to wait but Ideal Crown made it worthwhile when she dashed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-641681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}