Photo: Trish Dunell
Friends and family are important to the Weatherley family and they were all out in force to celebrate the win of Pier (Proisir [AUS] - La Vitesse) in the Gr.2 AHD Hawkes Bay Guineas last Saturday.
The talented three-year-old is trained by Darren Weatherley and his daughter Briar, and is raced by Darren, his wife Lou, old family friend Barry Wright, and Ozzi Kheir.
Due to the large amount of rain in the Hawke’s Bay and the races being abandoned the previous week, the race along with the Gr.1 Arrowfield Plate was held on the Weatherleys’ home track of Matamata.
“It was absolutely special winning on our home track and in front of our home crowd,” said a very proud Darren Weatherley. “It was great to have Sam leading him back in even though he would have loved to be riding him, it was still a thrill for him and a bit of a boost.”
Bred by the Weatherleys and Barry Wright, Pier was making just his third race day appearance. He won two trials as a two-year-old before winning on debut in August at Matamata. At his next start he ran second in the Listed El Roca Trophy, before going on to win the Hawke’s Bay Guineas.
It was after those impressive trials that Weatherley said he had numerous offers to buy the gelding, but he kept saying no out of loyalty to Wright.
“Lou and I might owe a million and Barry probably has a million in his back pocket, but at his stage of life at 85 he would rather have the racehorse and the photo on the wall than the money,” Weatherley explained.
“When Ozzie Kheir asked if he could buy Pier I said no for all those reasons, so he asked if he could buy half of my half. He valued the horse quite high and it looked like a good thing for Lou and I and we still get to keep our share and train the horse.
“I paid a couple of bills and thought it won’t do our stable any harm to have Ozzie’s colours on a horse. So nothing has really changed. Ozzie was on the phone before the horse pulled up, he phoned Sam and then phoned again on Saturday night and the night after.”
Pier is the third foal and third winner from the Darci Brahma mare La Vitesse, herself the winner of three races and she finished just behind the top three-year-old fillies of her year before she broke down. Her first foal also by Proisir, named La Velocita she won three races for the team but unfortunately recently broke a pastern in a track gallop and couldn’t be saved.
Her second foal, Maria Farina, by Contributer (IRE) has also won three races, two of them in Saturday company. She is also raced by the Weatherleys and Wright. This year La Vitesse has produced a filly by Contributer (IRE) – her fourth foal - and has returned to Proisir.
La Vitesse is the second foal of the stakes winning mare Naturo, who won three races including the Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes and the Gr.3 Highview Stakes, and it is due to her that the friendship with Barry Wright and the Weatherleys began.
“I was at the Karaka sale and had looked at Naturo but she was passed in,” recalled Wright.
“I was having a beer with Andrew McLachlan who bred her afterwards and he said he wanted $15,000 for her. We shook hands and did the deal. Then Andrew and some of his family members and their mates all came in for 2.5 % each.
“She went to John Sargent to be trained and that’s where I met Darren and we have been friends ever since. I’ve watched the kids grow up and we have had some great fun over the years.”
Weatherley echoed those sentiments and values Wright’s friendship.
“I met Wrighty when he bought Naturo at the sales and raced him with Andrew McLachlan and a few others,” he said.
“I broke her in for Sarg and she went on to race out of his stable. When she retired, she went to stud and eventually was on sold, but Barry bought La Vitesse from the syndicate to race.
“We had become firm family friends by then, he always came and stayed for a weekend about once a month, and really he is like part of the family.
“Anyway, La Vitesse went into work with Sarg and I was still doing all his pre-training and working his overflow of horses, so when he went to Sydney, I decided to take my licence out and train and took over training her. Her first start for me was in the Lowland Stakes
“When she finished racing, we decided to send her to stud, she is the only mare that either of us own and she has proved to be a good one.”
Naturo left four other winners including the stakes performers Orutan (by Pins [AUS]) and O’Naturelle (by O’Reilly). She was a half-sister to Il Divo who won two and was placed in the Gr.2 Great Northern Guineas and the Gr.3 Waikato Guineas.
They were out of the winning Rubiton (AUS) mare Rubiton’s Best and daughter of Miritoan Sea (by Beaufort Sea[GB]), herself a sister to the stakes winning mares Aegean Sea and Ionian Sea, being out of Kalimera (by Red Jester-Mural). Other descendants of Kalimera include the Group One winners Booming, Electronic and Sweet Idea. -Michelle Saba, NZTBA
