5 May 2024Turn The Ace once again emphasised his love affair with Te Rapa when he successfully resumed over 1200 metres on the Hamilton course.
Trainer Andrew Forsman had the five-year-old ready to rock and roll first-up and he put his open class rivals to the sword by three and a-half lengths.
It was his sixth win on the track, including a two-year-old success in the Listed Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre Stakes, and eighth overall from 22 appearances.
“We thought he might be a run short, with only the one trial under his belt but we wanted to try to give him as many opportunities to race at that track as we could,” Forsman said.
“If he was able to get his way out in front and then rail the way he does at Te Rapa, he might be hard to catch, and that’s how it turned out.
“We don’t have too much planned for the rest of his campaign now – just racing at Te Rapa as much as we can.”
Turn The Ace showed gate speed to make the running under rider Michael McNab and forged clear 250 metres from home to win easing down to set up another profitable campaign.
Bred by The Sunlight Trust, he is raced by a large ownership group that includes Forsman’s parents Steve and Lynne and was purchased for $30,000 out of the Cambridge Stud draft during the Book 1 sale at Karaka in 2020.
Turn The Ace is a son of the Lonhro mare Frescoes, also the dam of the G3 Victoria Handicap winner Here To Shock who went close to a family double when he finished runner-up at Caulfield.