By Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
Te Akau Racing continued their domination of New Zealand’s juvenile ranks when Seize The Day comfortably took out the Gr.1 Courtesy Ford Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Trentham on Saturday, with the added bonus for co-trainer Sam Bergerson of having his father, Roydon Bergerson, quinella the race with Sweetest Thing.
Seize The Day was backed into a $2.80 favourite for the two-year-old feature, but he had punters anxious when he dislodged jockey Opie Bosson just before heading to the start, but the veteran jockey was able calm his charge and got around to the starting gates in one piece.
After jumping from his wide alley, Bosson took in the early state of play of the race and elected to press forward, eventually finding the parked position outside pacemaker Summer Schemer.
Seize The Day loomed ominously at the turn and quickly hit the lead, and made light work of his opposition, running out to a 4-1/2 length victory over Sweetest Thing, with outsider Speed Demon a further half a length back in third.
“I took my time a little bit (at the start of the race) to see what was going to happen and I thought ‘I better get moving here, I am going to be caught three deep’, so I elected to slide forward,” Bosson said.
“It took a couple of strides for him to come back to me but once he did, he relaxed beautifully and I think it was the right idea to take the blinkers off.
“I wasn’t happy with his manners going to the start, but in the race they were perfect. He is a lovely big colt, has a massive stride on him and he is just so smooth underneath you. It makes my job easy.”
It was Te Akau Racing’s eighth win in the race in the last nine years and Sam Bergerson, who trains in partnership with Mark Walker, was pleased his stable was able to clean sweep the juvenile Group One races in New Zealand this year, with stablemate Lara Antipova having won the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie earlier this month.
“He is just an outstanding colt and we have liked him from day one,” Bergerson said. “We thought he would have been racing a bit earlier than he was, it just took a while for the penny to drop.
“He is just going from strength to strength and it is so exciting to see him put in a performance like that. Opie summed it up well, he was in two minds at the start and he made the right choice.
“The way he quickened was really exciting. I thought he was travelling really nicely at the top of the straight and I thought ‘gee, I would love to stick the blinkers on him now’. Thankfully he just switched on and he has gone to another level since Matamata.”
Bergerson’s father Roydon was one of the first to congratulate him after the win and Bergerson said getting the quinella with his father was special.
“It is really cool to quinella it with Dad, it is pretty special,” he said. “He is almost as excited as me and he has run second.”
Roydon Bergerson was rapt for his son and said his filly will now head for a spell.
“He (Sam) has done a great job for Te Akau and it’s an honour to work there. I don’t mind getting beaten by him,” Roydon Bergerson quipped.
“I think she (Sweetest Thing) will be an outstanding three-year-old filly. She has always looked like she is going to be a three-year-old. She has just had so much ability the whole way through and we targeted this race. We had a few hiccups going into it, but we are proud of her and she will come back a nice filly. She is going out for a three-month spell today.”
Seize The Day was purchased by Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis, in partnership with Kia Ora Stud, out of Yarraman Park Stud’s 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft for A$600,000.
He has now won two of his three starts to date and has earned more than $334,000 in prizemoney.
