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Success at either Stratford or Hastings will provide a much-needed boost for Jane and Norman Wood’s stable.
They will be represented by the capable Pencuri in Friday’s New Commercial Hotel/Tui Brewery Handicap at Te Kapua Park and by Selamat, who will make his jumping debut at Saturday’s Hawke’s Bay meeting in the Desert Gold Club Maiden Hurdle.
“They should both have been in Melbourne, but Norman had a horrendous accident in May when he fell 20 feet through a roof on to concrete and he’s been in hospital ever since so that stymied our plans,” Jane Wood said.
Pencuri was in a rich vein of form last winter when he won twice and was twice a runner-up during the Grand National carnival at Riccarton.
The five-year-old returned from a spell two runs back to finish fifth over 1600 metres at Awapuni and was then out of luck when unplaced at Wanganui.
“His last race can be written off completely after he got flattened at the start,” Wood said.
“He’s very, very well at the moment, but we’ve got no plans and we’ll take it a race at a time and just potter along.”
Stablemate Selamat hasn’t won since he broke his maiden on the flat at Otaki three years ago and he has showed promise in his new role.
“He won a jumping trial at Otaki a few weeks ago and he’s going well,” Wood said.
Hardest for him to beat may be Sonny Ben, who was an encouraging last-start third behind Istimagic and Back In Black at Ellerslie, from the powerful Kevin Myers team.