Renegade too tough

Renegade (Captaintreacherous) showed plenty of ticker when winning last night’s feature pace at Addington.

Driver Seth Hill got the six year old away well from the 25 metre handicap and chose to bide his time early in the piece, before taking the lead off Da Vinci.

“He stepped him cleanly and did the right thing (going to the front). I was very happy with him last night,” said trainer Brendan Hill.

Turning in, Renegade had a two length advantage over Da Vinci but the southern gelding started to close the gap as he began to come up the passing lane.

At the line Renegade was too tough, holding out Da Vinci by a head with Malaki three lengths back in third.

“He’s won a lot of races in front and it looked as though that other horse was going to get him. But Seth said the other horse was never going to get him. He had it covered.”

RENEGADE REPLAY

After the race, Stewards talked to Seth who had left the hopples pins in for the duration of the race.

“It was a bit of a bad one. He just forgot. He wears such a long hopple and it only pulled him up a few holes. It probably didn’t make too much of a difference.”

Owned by Glenys and Phil Kennard, Tony Hickman, the Kirkwood Family Racing Syndicate and John Magness, the race was Renegade’s third this campaign.

“He ran last at Ashburton, but it was a good last because they went 1-50 (mile rate) and he had a good blow after that. He had a couple of nice trials and that was good. I thought he was really good the start before, running second. He just bobbled away a little bit and we’ll just have to work on that.”

In the short term Renegade will be given a quiet time, awaiting the feature race programme to come out so Hill can plot a path for the gelding.

“We’ll probably just back off him a bit, trial him and get him ready for September. It’s only going to get tougher. I’m doing a bit of cantering with him and have changed his training and he’s really enjoying that. He’s a little bit older now and a bit more mature. It’s a tough grade and there’s no hiding.”

Depending on how he races in the next few months, Hill says Renegade will probably be aimed at the New Zealand Cup in November.

“He such a relaxed laid-back racehorse. I’m not sure (whether) you could buzz around to the front and do that with him all the time, over two miles. If they go hard and he gets a sit he can be strong.”

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink