{"id":336590,"date":"2025-08-11T20:18:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336590\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T20:18:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:18:15","slug":"horse-racing-grant-cooksleys-black-beauty-looks-ready-for-seasons-first-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336590\/","title":{"rendered":"Horse racing: Grant Cooksley\u2019s black beauty looks ready for season\u2019s first feature"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"zZbQRyor\" style=\"display:none\">The former Hong Kong galloper struck early in his New Zealand career, winning over a mile at Ellerslie second-up in October before returning to the Auckland venue a month later, repeating the result in the Group 3 Great Northern Challenge Stakes (1600m).<\/p>\n<p class=\"zZbQRyor\" style=\"display:none\">Cooksley has been pleased with the way the son of Pivotal has returned, but said they are mindful of his age and will play his spring campaign by ear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zZbQRyor\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cMeaningful Star worked around [on Saturday],\u201d Cooksley said. \u201cHe might go the Foxbridge Plate, we will just see how he goes. We will just take it as it comes with him, he is getting a bit old.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<a class=\"ad__link\" data-test-ui=\"ad__link\" href=\"https:\/\/advertising.nzme.co.nz\/\" data-ad-env=\"both\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"zZbQRyor\" style=\"display:none\">Stayers Son of Sun and Trust in You finished sixth and seventh respectively in Saturday\u2019s trial, and Cooksley is happy with their progression heading into spring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zZbQRyor\" style=\"display:none\">Son of Sun began the year with a bang when winning the Group 3 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2400m) at Ellerslie on New Year\u2019s Day, and his trainers are hopeful of their gelding returning to that form later this spring, when he likely contests the Group 1 Howden Insurance Mile (1600m) and Group 1 Livamol Classic (2040m).<\/p>\n<p class=\"zZbQRyor\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cSon of Sun trialled well and he is a bit stronger this year,\u201d Cooksley said. \u201cHe is in the last two [legs of the triple crown] but we will just see how he is coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"zZbQRyor\" style=\"display:none\">Trust In You had a busy spring last term, with four starts in Australia, including a 17th-placed run in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m). A return across the Tasman is in the offing, but is unlikely to include a tilt at the coveted two-mile feature.<\/p>\n<p>Discover more<\/p>\n<p class=\"zZbQRyor\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cHe trialled well too,\u201d Cooksley said. \u201cWe will see how he comes up, but we are thinking more about Sydney.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"zZbQRyor\" style=\"display:none\"><b>\u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Hong Kong galloper struck early in his New Zealand career, winning over a mile at Ellerslie&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[120418,952,37600,7622,120415,120416,120413,121,4923,3576,19630,120419,9348,17340,1687,120420,1071,36299,114271,57519,14123,120414,79,24380,120417,17749,72013,17289,21032,40329,31522,120421,16,15,106570],"class_list":{"0":"post-336590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-1000m","9":"tag-beauty","10":"tag-black","11":"tag-bruce","12":"tag-byerley","13":"tag-cooksley","14":"tag-cooksleys","15":"tag-feature","16":"tag-first","17":"tag-for","18":"tag-grant","19":"tag-hoping","20":"tag-horse","21":"tag-looks","22":"tag-park","23":"tag-quartet","24":"tag-racing","25":"tag-rapa","26":"tag-ready","27":"tag-representation","28":"tag-saturdays","29":"tag-seasons","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-spring","32":"tag-starstudded","33":"tag-store","34":"tag-strong","35":"tag-their","36":"tag-they","37":"tag-trainers","38":"tag-trial","39":"tag-triallers","40":"tag-uk","41":"tag-united-kingdom","42":"tag-wallace"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115011984083845919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}