Gordon chasing stakes success with Gavelhouse pair

Foxton trainer Suzy Gordon will be chasing stakes success at New Plymouth on Saturday with a pair of runners that cost her a combined $17,000.

Gordon has a knack for eyeing a bargain buy on online auction house gavelhouse.com and revitalising their racing careers, with Turn The Ace and Prioress being key examples.

She purchased Turn The Ace for $9,750 and Prioress for $7,250 as tried horses, and each of them have more than recouped their purchase price, with Turn The Ace earning $26,000 in prizemoney for Gordon, while Prioress has amassed $85,000 in two seasons with the Horowhenua horsewoman.

The pair have been in exemplary form of late and Gordon has elected to roll the dice and enter them in Saturday’s Listed Agfirst Engineering Opunake Cup (1400m).

“It is a big ask but they are going well so I thought they are worth having a go with,” she said.

Turn The Ace has finished runner-up in his two starts this preparation and on Saturday he will once again be ridden by stable apprentice Liam Kauri, with the pair to jump from barrier 11.

“He went really well last start and he meets Bonnard (race favourite) 1.5kg better, which he will need,” Gordon said. “He is a happy horse and he is going well.”

Prioress returned to winning form at Hawera last Saturday following her unplaced run in the Listed Tauranga Classic (1400m), and Gordon is looking forward to testing her talent in stakes grade once more where she will be ridden by Masa Hashizume from gate 16.

“She only ever does what she has to,” Gordon said. “It quite often looks like she has just fallen in, but that is her, she hits the front and pulls up.”