Karaka Graduate Ringo (NZ) Claims Spring Sprint

Well-bred Karaka graduate Ringo (NZ) (Fastnet Rock) picked up the biggest win of his career when he claimed the $70,000 Group 3 Red Badge Spring Sprint (1400m) at Hastings on Saturday.

Ridden by Hayden Tinsley for Awapuni trainer Mike Breslin, the seven-year-old gelding bravely outfought the hot favourite Get That Jive (Street Sense) and scored by a head.

Ringo finished second in the Group 2 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile (1600m) at Riccarton last November and is now likely to return to try to go one better.

“He was only just beaten a nose in the Coupland's last year and it's always been the plan to go back,” trainer Breslin said.

“He's a big, heavy horse so we're hoping to get a couple of runs on ground like today and then he can get away with one on top of the ground.”

Breslin paid $150,000 to purchase Ringo from the draft of Wellfield Lodge at the 2011 Premier Sale. The gelding is raced by G P Calder, P G Gillespie, W J Gleeson & M J Morton.

Ringo has now had 28 starts for eight wins, six placings and more than $250,000 in stakes.

Bred by W J Bloodstock Limited, Ringo is out of the Zabeel mare Akris, the dam of four winners from four foals to race. Ringo is the second of the mare’s progeny to win at stakes level. His full-sister Planet Rock won five races including the Group 1 New Zealand Bloodstock 1000 Guineas (1600m), the Group 2 Eight Carat Classic (1600m) and the Group 3 Lowland Stakes (2100m).