Corrina McDougal has enjoyed another successful racing season in partnership with Paul Nelson, and the Hastings trainers hope to top it off in style with last-start winners Taika and Raucous at Te Rapa on Saturday.
A son of Mettre En Jeu, Taika showed his hurdling promise early when runner-up to The Mighty Spar on debut at Te Rapa, before breaking his maiden stylishly over 2500m under jumps jockey Jack Power at Hastings earlier this month.
The rising seven-year-old will pair with Power again this weekend, contesting the Stewart Browne Memorial Hurdle (3200m).
“We're pretty happy with him and his last race was really good so if he can repeat that I don't see why he couldn't go close,” McDougal said.
“If he went really well we'd have to look at Pakuranga (Hunt Open Hurdle, 3200m) and the Great Northern (Hurdles, 4200m) later in the season. We'd definitely consider the two big ones especially while his weight is not too high.”
Stablemate and fellow last-start victor Raucous will hope to continue his consistent form over the bigger fences.
The flashy Nom de Jeu gelding took even Nelson and McDougal by surprise in his last-start romp in the 0-1 Steeplechase (3900m) at Te Rapa, putting on a consistent jumping performance from the first fence to the winning post under Power.
“We all got a big of a surprise last time of how well he went, usually he mixes his jumping but Jack gets along with him well,” she said.
“He and Taika both galloped at Hastings on Tuesday, he's been working quite happily and relaxed.”
The successful training partners, who are based on the outskirts of Hastings, were delighted when their local course added jumps to educate their up and coming talent for the backend of the season.
“With the jumps going up at Hastings, we can take the likes of Foxalot, I'm Chuck and a few others to potentially start in some maiden hurdles at the last few jumping days,” McDougal said.