The four-year-old gelding is raced by the estate of the late Ken Piercy and his wife Audrey.
“She is ninety-three and lives in Wellington. I hope she is watching,” said trainer Arna Donnelly after the win.
From his second row on the grid, driver Sam Ottley quickly got Little Spike on the back of her main rival Rock N Bust and the pair raced into the outer running line. In the 500, driver Tim Williams rolled Rock N Bust and Ottley followed him into the race.
“Tim got pushed to the outside around the corner and I thought, ‘Keep going Tim, keep going’ because I wanted to follow him as long as I could,” Ottley said.
As the field came in for the run home, both horses ran down the middle of the track, with Rock N Bust getting the early advantage.
“I waited until we went 100 meters straight on the straight. It took some time to get past the other horse and to his credit he kept himself very well, but I was always confident I would get past him.”
At the end of the 1700 meter Little Spike (Terror to love) had a neck advantage over Rock N Bust (Rock’nroll Hannover) with Bannockburn (Locharburn) three-quarters of a length back in third.
SMALL SPIKE REPEAT
The winning time was 2-01.0 and a mile speed of 1-54.5.
The victory was only his second this season, but after winning five races as a three-year-old, he was forced to compete against open horses such as Merlin and Sooner The Better this season.
“His season has been fantastic and he’s just getting better and better. Next up will be the Auckland Cup which will be a little bit tougher but we’ve got to try,” Donnelly said.
The win was one of three for stallion Terror To Love, while the other winners were Amass and Amarillo Franco.
The Piercys have had horses for more than forty years, initially trained by the late Bryce Buchanan.
Little Spike’s pedigree goes back to Nice Gesture, which produced Mister Greatheart, who was raced by Ken and Audrey and won two races for Buchanan and another two for Dick Prendergast.
Nice Gesture also left Bella Ragazzo, mother of Giovanetto (18 wins), Holmes DG (32) and Hanover DG (4).
The Piercys also bred and raced Lover’s Wish with Buchanan, who won four races, including the 1995 G3 Southland Oaks.
She was out of Sonny’s Princess, a daughter of Queenship who produced a host of winners including Lord Hillas (6), Queens Advocate (4), Carefree Princess (8), Noble Fella (9) and Horace (4). They were all bred by Ken’s brother Bill.
Little Spike is named after Ken because that was his nickname when he was young.
The most successful horse Donnelly has trained for the Piercys is New York Minute, who won fifteen races and was good enough to finish fourth in the G1 Four Year Old Emerald won by South Coast Arden.
For full race results, click here.
Through Bruce Stewartfor Harnesslink
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