Split (NZ) Showcases Stamina in NZB Airfreight Road to the Jericho

Supreme stamina carried Split (NZ) (Turn Me Loose) to a breakthrough victory in Tuesday’s $40,000 NZB Airfreight Road to the Jericho (3200m) at Waverley, earning himself a golden ticket into the A$300,000 Jericho Cup (4600m) at Warrnambool in December.

The NZB Airfreight Road to the Jericho carries a ballot exemption for the Jericho Cup, and sponsors NZB Airfreight offer a $5,000 equine airfreight credit to the winner, should they decide to travel across the Tasman and contest the big race.

That Australian mission is well and truly on the cards for Split, whose impressive performance on Tuesday earned him the first victory of his 12-start career.

Split was trapped three wide throughout the race but never looked like tiring, sustaining a long run out of midfield and surging to the front soon after the home turn.

Tough jumpers Dictation (NZ) (Solo) and Berry The Cash (NZ) (Jakkalberry) gave chase down the straight, but Split kept kicking and maintained a margin of a length and three-quarters all the way to the finish line.

Split only made the field for Tuesday’s race when a scratching allowed him to get in off the ballot, but he now has the chance to follow in the footsteps of Nassak Diamond (NZ) (Roc De Cambes). That mare won the equivalent of this race 12 months ago and went on to become the first New Zealand-trained winner of the Jericho Cup.

“Toni (Davies) rode him really well,” Split’s trainer and part-owner Jo Rathbone told the Love Racing News Desk. “She got stuck out wide, but there wasn’t too much she could do about that.

“He’s not the sort of horse that you can pull back, he’s one-paced and just keeps on going, so she had to keep him in that rhythm and he just kept on kicking.

“The distance of this race really appealed – in all of his 2000-metre starts, he’s been the last one to pull up and hardly blowing.

“We definitely intend to go to the Jericho Cup. The extra distance in the Jericho will suit him, because he’ll just keep on going. Even today after the two miles, he’s pulled up really well.”

Tuesday’s race was the first of two qualifiers for the Jericho Cup, which is a hugely popular race that was introduced in 2018 to commemorate the feats of Australasia’s light horse units during World War I. Restricted to horses bred in either Australia or New Zealand, it has been won by New Zealand-breds in all of its six renewals to date.

The second Jericho Cup qualifier in New Zealand will be the $50,000 NZB Airfreight Road to the Jericho (3000m) at Riccarton on October 26.