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Wynyard hoping the stars align on Matariki
Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk • June 19th, 2025 2:30 pm
Pride Of Aspen will contest the Cavallo Farms and Chris Rutten Bloodstock Handicap (1600m) at Otaki on Friday. | Photo: Peter Rubery/Race Images Palmerston North
Cambridge trainer Hollie Wynyard will head back to her old stomping ground of Otaki on Friday where she is hoping the stars align on Matariki and she can score her first individual stakes victory.
Promising two-year-old filly Ayumi will be holding the weight of expectation when she lines-up in the Listed John Turkington Forestry Castletown Stakes (1200m) following her pleasing runner-up debut performance at New Plymouth last month.
The daughter of Headwater was bettered by the Robbie Patterson-trained Paltrow Miss by three lengths, but her vanquisher won’t feature in Saturday’s contest.
“She went really well,” Wynyard said. “We have got quite an opinion of her, she is a nice, little filly.
“That one of Robbie Patterson’s, they had quite a big opinion of her before she raced, and she lived up to that.”
Ayumi has drawn barrier one on Friday, a gate Wynyard isn’t overly enamoured with on what will be a Heavy track.
“She has drawn a gate that I don’t know if it will suit with track conditions, which are going to be quite wet, but it gives Kelly (Myers, jockey) options,” Wynyard said. “She will be able to tuck in behind the speed hopefully and go close.
“It’s a pretty moderate field. I don’t think the better ones are there, I think they have gone to the paddock, and it gives her a nice chance to get some black-type. She is obviously a maidener, but she went well in her first-up run.”
Wynyard doesn’t have any set plans with Ayumi post-Saturday but isn’t ruling out a return to the Kapiti Coast for a second bid at black-type in next month’s Listed Courtesy Ford Ryder Stakes (1200m).
“We’ll just see how she pulls up,” Wynyard said. “With two-year-olds, they generally need the paddock at some point, and it might be the case with her. It is a big trip down to Otaki and her welfare comes first.”
Wynyard will also line-up Pride Of Aspen in the Cavallo Farms and Chris Rutten Bloodstock Handicap (1600m), opting for the rating 75 contest over the Harcourts Otaki Raukawa Cup (2100m).
“I think on a heavy track she is quite lethal,” Wynyard said. “She loves rain on the day and her record at 1400m and a mile is definitely better than her record over ground.
“I think she is a really nice miler and that keeps some options open for her. I think she will go very close. She is flying and is doing really well, she is sharp enough and it is quite a moderate race.”
In her first season training in a solo capacity, Wynyard has won seven races and accrued more than $520,000 in prizemoney to date. While pleased with the way the season has gone, she would love to score an elusive stakes scalp, and believes her filly is capable of accomplishing that this weekend.
“It is my first season training on my own. We haven’t picked up a stakes win, but we have had a lot of runners in stakes races, and if you have the runners in there you are doing pretty well,” she said.
“I am rapt with the horses and how they have performed, they have all gone out there and have done their best for us, which is all we can ask.
“Hopefully next season we go on to bigger and better things. I massively appreciate the owners for supporting us and Ryan (Elliot, partner and jockey) for generally getting it right.
“It would be great if Ayumi could get up tomorrow, that would be the cherry on top for the end of the season.”
