Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images
Raymond Connors has collected every major two-mile prize in New Zealand, and now he is dreaming of a possible tilt at Australasia’s most coveted staying scalp, the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m).
The Bulls horseman has long held aspirations of winning the race that stops a continent, and his breeding and racing endeavours have reflected that, with Connors having a plethora of success in New Zealand staying and jumping features.
Trav’s (Almanzor) victory in the Gr.2 Auckland Cup (3200m) at Ellerslie on Saturday completed New Zealand’s feature staying set for Connors, who has previously tasted success in the country’s two other staying features with Blood Brotha – New Zealand Cup (2011 and 2012) and Wellington Cup (2013).
“It was a bloody good win,” Connors said. “It was nice to win on such a big day (Champions Day) with all of those good races on. To be up there and a part of it was good.
“It is nice to say that I have won the three major Cups in New Zealand, it is a good achievement.”
Connors’ two star stayers hail from the same family, sourced from White Robe Lodge in Otago, who were also the producers of his star jumpers Our Jonty, Hypnotize and Wise Men Say.
“All of our success has been out of the White Robe Lodge family,” Connors said. “It is a White Robe breed that we picked up a couple of fillies and started breeding from. We have got a few of them around and we have carried on the breed. They have got that good southern, staying blood in them.
“They (Anderton family of White Robe Lodge) are great friends now and we still talk with them a lot and catch-up with them, and we still send the odd mare down. It is harder and harder with breeding, but success like that on Saturday keeps you going.”
One of Connors’ White Robe Lodge purchases was Trav’s grand-dam Royal Princess, who was a half-sister to Connors’ Group One performer King Johny and Laura Dee, the dam of Blood Brotha.
Her first foal was Prince Oz, who won seven consecutive races in 2018, including the Gr.3 Steward Stakes (1200m), and he returned to Riccarton two years later to recapture his crown.
Savabeel filly Royal Sav was the second foal out of Royal Princess, and she went on to win one race for Connors before retiring to the broodmare paddock, with her second foal being an Almanzor colt, who Connors would later name Trav.
Trav showed plenty of promise from the outset, winning on debut over 1200m at Awapuni as a juvenile. He was tested at stakes level as a three-year-old but beat just one runner home in both the Gr.2 Avondale Guineas (2100m) and Gr.3 Manawatu Classic (2000m).
He went on to add a further four wins to his record before being tested over two miles for the first time in January in the Gr.3 Wellington Cup (3200m), where he finished fourth, cementing a tilt at last Saturday’s Auckland Cup, which he won with an eye-catching turn of foot down Ellerslie’s straight.
Connors was rapt with the victory and said it is one he will savour for some time.
“You don’t know when you are going to get your next one, so you have got to savour this one for a bit as they don’t come along very often, so we are going to enjoy it,” he said.
Reflecting on his achievements with his stayers, Connors said the dream has always been to win a Melbourne Cup and he has aimed to breed that type of horse.
“The Melbourne Cup is the dream so you are breeding or buying horses that will hopefully be good enough to win some staying races,” he said.
“If they can’t win Cups races then they can jump, so there is another future for them.”
Connors has previously tested his breed in Australia, with Blood Brotha runner-up in the Gr.2 Chairman’s Quality (2600m) and fourth in the Gr.1 Sydney Cup (3200m), and while the latter was an obvious potential target after Saturday’s win for Trav, Connors has resisted the urge to contest the Randwick feature next month.
Instead, Trav will head for a well-deserved break, and Connors will eagerly follow the autumn paths of Auckland Cup placegetters Tajanis and Interpretation, with the former holding a nomination for the Sydney Cup.
“It will be interesting to see how they (Tajanis and Interpretation) go when they head home and how the form stacks up,” Connors said. “We can look further afield if it does.
“We were lucky enough to take Blood Brotha over and he performed well enough over there. I would like to get back over there but it wasn’t the right timing for Trav this time.”
While next month’s Sydney Cup is out of the picture, Connors hasn’t ruled out fulfilling his lifelong dream of contesting the Melbourne Cup with Trav in the spring.
“You can dream,” he said. “We will just let the dust settle. That is a massive step up, but you never say never, we will just see what happens in the spring.”
Connors has a number of Trav’s siblings in the paddock, and Saturday’s win has spurred him on to see if he can find another Group One winner amongst them.
“We have got a handful to try out of her (Royal Sav). We will have to get them out of the paddock I suppose,” Connors quipped. “We will have to put a bit more effort into the others and hopefully find another one.”
With Trav heading to the paddock, Connors’ attention has now turned towards the jumping season where he is hoping his nine-year-old gelding Brucie can feature prominently.
“We will try and have one or two going around the jumps. I have got Brucie, who I am hoping to get back jumping this winter,” Connors said.
“He likes wet ground, so we will look at some of the jumping races once the tracks get heavy, like the Wellington Hurdles. He is quite a handy horse if he stays sound.”
