Northlander Comes to Town in Christchurch

The consistent Northland galloper Durham Town (NZ) (Falkirk) made the long trek to Christchurch for yesterday’s Group 3 $100,000 Lindauer Stewards Handicap (1200m) and came away a deserved winner on the back of his recent good form.

Durham Town (NZ) winning the Group 3 $100,000 Lindauer Stewards Handicap at Riccarton Park.

Trained at Ruakaka by Donna & Dean Logan, the six-year-old gelding carried a strong formline into the race having not finished further back than fourth in his six runs since the beginning of last season, all in black-type company including a Group 1 third placing.

The son of Falkirk was a sound third fresh up in the Listed Lion Red Plate and had the services of leading Australian based jockey James McDonald who is back in New Zealand on a working holiday this week.

Starting from barrier three, Durham Town settled near the pace in the 1200m sprint feature of Christchurch Cup week. As the field cleared the dog-leg bend at Riccarton, Durham Town emerged from the pack to hit the front.

Late challenges came from Natuzzi (NZ) (Coats Choice) and Saturday’s Listed Pegasus Stakes winner Irish Fling (NZ) (Darci Brahma) but there was no catching Durham Town who posted a winning margin of a neck in a time of 1.08.49 under a 59.5kg impost.

“His work had been good and he ran a good race first up at Rotorua when he finished third and he has come on since then,” commented co-trainer Dean Logan.

“You never know flying down, we only went down on Sunday and with the flights it made it more attractive to go down there.

“The Group 1 Railway will be a nice race for him. We have to be careful where we race because you get up in the weights pretty quickly but the Railway is probably our main aim at this stage.

“Jim Gibbs went up to Donna straight after she had purchased the horse and said I want a share in this horse. He had connections with the family already and liked the horse as a type and as a young horse he was an outstanding type.

“All through our training career we haven’t had the money to buy the top $100,000 - $200,000 horses with our main purchases being at the lower end of the scale but Donna is a pretty good judge of a type. We have had horses like Victory Smile that won $1 million so there have been a few success stories.”

It was the third win at stakes level for Durham Town following previous victories in the Group 2 Concorde Handicap and the Group 3 Darley Plate among his seven career victories from 21 starts, earning $307,433 in prizemoney. He is part-owned by a former great of the New Zealand training ranks in Jim Gibbs along with his wife Ann, they share in the ownership with Donna Logan and P D Collins, J B Hart & D H Wale.

Bred by Mrs D S & P L Seebeck, Durham Town is out of the unraced mare Durham Walk (Marju) and is one of three winners from the mare. He was purchased by Donna Logan at the 2009 Karaka Festival Sale for $42,000 from Nerobella Lodge.