\u201cHe was very good in the Pak\u016branga, considering it was a bit shorter,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully for him, the track will be wet and loose again on Friday. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a bit slow to start with [this year] but once he\u2019s found his form, he\u2019s gone very well.\u201d <\/p>\n
The third-place-getter in last year\u2019s Northern, Taika, opened his 2025 account on a winning note in May, but has mixed his form at times since then, with the testing ground not to his liking in the Pak\u016branga.<\/p>\n
Nelson and McDougal opted to back him up at Woodville in the following weekend and were satisfied with a fourth-placed effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he enjoyed his run at Pak\u016branga in the really wet, loose mud, he was covered in it,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if he races handier, he can probably stay away from it a bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bambino brings the least amount of experience into the race, but he certainly makes up for that in talent, winning his last two hurdle races and sealing a trip north for his prestige debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cBen [Foote], his part-owner, was very keen for him to run in this race, but he had to prove he was up to it,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cI think he\u2019s really done that in his last couple of races.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a funny little horse, he\u2019s not the easiest to work and we try to keep him as quiet and settled as we can. But when he gets to the races, he settles very well and doesn\u2019t fight the rider.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that he\u2019ll be able to do that on Friday, relax and see out the 4200m.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foote and his son Ryan, who train in Cambridge, are sponsors of the other headlining event of the carnival, the Ben and Ryan Foote Great New Zealand Steeplechase (6200m), where Nedwin will be vying for top honours.<\/p>\n
The son of Niagara switched between hurdling and steeplechasing in the early part of the season, but now focusing on the bigger fences, he placed third in the Grand National Steeplechase (5600m) before taking out the key lead-up race to Sunday\u2019s event, the Pak\u016branga Hunt Cup (4300m).<\/p>\n
Nelson was pleased with how his charge came through the feature but is mindful of the test he faces as a relatively inexperienced chaser.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy with his work, he seemed to have come through the Pak\u016branga race really well and had a nice few days off in a grass paddock, which always helps them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have to see how he goes, he\u2019s still a young steeplechaser but he\u2019s going well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t mind [track conditions], he handles bad ground and if it was a little bit better, it doesn\u2019t worry him. He retains a bit of ability on the flat as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe was very good in the Pak\u016branga, considering it was a bit shorter,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cHopefully for him,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[66409,66408,16927,559,30036,9099,66405,13673,66402,1776,17384,22969,6919,32543,1844,66403,1779,42728,25096,3004,4669,66406,66404,101,66407,26147,34917,37761,2377,26146,56,54,55,3674,11552],"class_list":["post-143707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-aroha","tag-contenders","tag-could","tag-feature","tag-friday","tag-great","tag-hopes","tag-horse","tag-hurdle","tag-in","tag-into","tag-jumps","tag-launch","tag-leading","tag-match","tag-nelsons","tag-new","tag-northern","tag-paul","tag-racing","tag-record","tag-renamed","tag-reputation","tag-sports","tag-swap","tag-threat","tag-three","tag-trainers","tag-transfer","tag-triple","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}