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Spencer seeking fairytale result in Opunake Cup
Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk • July 17th, 2026 2:23 pm
Spencer and jockey Lisa Allpress (pictured) will reunite in Saturday's Listed Opunake Cup (1400m). Photo: Peter Rubery (Race Images)
Group Three winner Spencer was runner-up in the Listed Opunake Cup (1400m) two years ago when ridden by Lisa Allpress, and he will reunite with the returning jockey in this year’s edition where the pair will aim to go one better on Saturday.
Allpress has spent most of the last two years on the sideline following two separate injuries, but she made the perfect return to raceday riding last Saturday when winning aboard the Kevin Myers-trained He’s Lucid at Hawera.
Trainers Peter and Shaun McKay are glad to have secured the veteran hoop’s services, with Peter McKay initially broaching the idea of Allpress returning to ride in the race when seeing her at Trentham earlier this month.
“I saw her down at Wellington and we were thinking of going there (Opunake Cup) so I dropped the idea and asked if she would be back in time,” Peter McKay said.
“She has won two or three races on the horse and with the split meeting (Ruakaka and New Plymouth) we were wondering who was going to be riding down there, so we thought it would be nice to have someone who knows the horse, albeit she was coming back off an injury. Lisa had already been riding at the trials and we knew her fitness would be as good as most, and now she has already had a winner.”
Spencer has had two lead-in runs to Saturday’s Agfirst Engineering-sponsored feature, including running fourth over 1200m at Trentham a fortnight ago on a Heavy10 track, a surface he will meet at New Plymouth this weekend.
“We are pretty happy with him, my only worry is the track and what it comes up, whether it is loose or sticky,” McKay said. “He has won on a Heavy before, but I think more on the loose side.”
The McKays tested Spencer over a mile in the Gr.2 Thorndon Mile (1600m) at Trentham in January, and while he finished 10th, they aren’t ruling out a return to the distance on more forgiving going.
“It (stepping up to a mile) didn’t come off so well down at Wellington for us, but I think we will just get through this race and then assess things after that,” McKay said. “I thought his run in the Thorndon was pretty good because he had pulled pretty hard, but the tracks were getting pretty firm when we had a go at it. Hopefully we can get him back in form and go from there.”
The stable will just have the one runner this weekend, but several of their leading lights are nearing their raceday return, including Group Three winners Santa Catalina and Wolfgang.
“Santa Catalina and Wolfgang are at the same stage, they have both had a couple of gallops. I am happy with both of them at this stage,” McKay said.
Wolfgang’s season didn’t go to plan, with the seven-year-old gelding unplaced in all three of his starts in Australia before winning his resuming start in New Zealand in the Waikato Cup Prelude (2400m). But then the wheels came off his campaign when heading south to Riccarton to contest the Gr.3 New Zealand Cup (3200m), where he finished 12th.
“Wolfgang went out on a bit of a low note,” McKay said. “When he won that race at Waikato and we went down for the New Zealand Cup, that was the day it virtually snowed and the track was atrocious. I shouldn’t have started him, and he ended up tweaking a tendon.
“We waited to get him back from that and we had a virus go through the stable and we couldn’t really get him over it, and that affected him in his last run or two, but he is very well now.”
McKay has set his sights on the Gr.1 Livamol Classic (2040m) at Hastings on October 10 with Wolfgang, but he hasn’t ruled out a return across the Tasman if he returns to his form of old.
“He will get a nom for the last Group One at Hawke’s Bay, so that is what we are working him towards at the moment,” McKay said.
“If he came out and started doing what he was doing two years ago we would think about it (Australia) again. There is always the Geelong Cup (Gr.3, 2400m) and those sorts of races if he bounced back to form.”
Stablemate Santa Catalina posted three wins this term, including the Gr.3 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2400m) at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day, and McKay is eyeing another Group Three target in the New Zealand Cup at Riccarton in November.
“She is nicely in the weights at the moment, so it could be a good chance for her to go down and have a crack at it (New Zealand Cup),” McKay said.
“They will both kick-off at Hastings over a mile and she will head off towards Auckland and get over more ground, and we may look at going down to Christchurch for the two days down there.”
Meanwhile, evergreen gelding Sagunto may have one final campaign before retirement, with McKay tempted to have another crack at the Gr.3 Manawatu Cup (2300m) at Trentham in December with the rising 11-year-old, a race he has won three times from four attempts.
“He has been bouncing around the paddock like he is a five-year-old, so I think he wants to come back in,” McKay said.
“I am toying with the idea of getting him back, but he doesn’t start peaking again until November-December. He has won three out of four (Manawatu Cups), so it would be nice to have one more go.”
