THOROUGHBRED

The Group 3 Tumu ITM Hawkey's Bay Cup was taken out by DON DOMINGO at Hastings on Saturday

He settled early with three behind him and made his move from the 600 meter, a nice ride from Masa Tanaka saw him follow them up and wait patiently for the gap to come, it was there at the 200 meter and a powerful finish saw him go to the line and win by three quarters of a length, BETTER TOGETHER fought well after enjoying the one-one, DAWN GHOST finished well down the outside to be a nose away in third. The 2200 meters was run in 2.14.71 on a Good3 track.

The race was not without it's drama. SEAFLYTE led them throughout and looked the winner at the 100 meter until he drifted in and hit the running rail close to home, jockey Patrick Holmes was thrown over the rail and ended up on the inside of the track, It was good to see him walk off the course.

DON DOMINGO is a 6 year old gelding by DON EDUARDO - BLUE HEAVEN, he is trained by Graham Richardson.

Graham Richardson," He is a good horse, he has had a lot of problems. I thought with a bit of speed in the race he would come home good and he did. He rode him good. Who knows, if he backs up he could be at Rotorua in a couple of weeks time but the tracks might start getting the better of him."

Masa Tanaka," Good effort yeah, I got about midfield and I was following CAN'T KEEPER DOWN and DAWN GHOST, I got a nice run through the race and when I got clear the horse was to good. He is a nice horse."