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The lightly-tried stakes performer Mighty Maverick has been sold to offshore interests.
He will further his career from the Hong Kong stable of Derek Cruz, whose Cambridge-based sons Trevor and Martin prepared the gelding for a handful of New Zealand starts last season.
Mighty Maverick was a debut winner at Matamata before he handled a sharp rise in class admirably when third in the Gr.3 Mr Tiz Trophy.The son of Snitzel subsequently finished a close sixth in the Gr.2 Wellington Guineas before he was unplaced in the Gr.3 Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes.
“In his second start at Ellerslie he was only a length off Passing Shot,” Trevor Cruz said.“He’s a very exciting horse who had no luck at his next two starts. Dad will be having a lot of fun with him.”
The brothers have been biding their time, like most trainers, before getting serious with the bulk of their spring and summer horses.They had a quartet of runners at last week’s Cambridge trials, including the unraced four-year-old Wingate.
“We looked at the calendar and with few trials left we had no option but to run them despite the ground and none of them were tested,” Cruz said.“Wingate is by Northern Meteor and he’s taken some time, but he’s come right and the signs are positive for him when we get to the Dead 4 or Good 3 tracks. We’ll have a fair few runners come November and December.”
Among them will be the overseas recruit Momojo, a son of Stratum and the dual Group Two Australian winner Umaline.“He was a Hong Kong International Sale horse, and a rather expensive one, who showed absolutely nothing up there,” Cruz said. “But from what I’ve seen he might here, some of them just don’t settle in Hong Kong.”