A 3 year old son of Dundeel (NZ) won his maiden at Ipswich yesterday in a manner to suggest that he can be aimed at higher grade races next preparation. A trip away is quite often thought to be a good way to help a young horse to a mature and learn to race and this has definitely been the case with MANNERHEIM, the gelding in question. Chris transferred him to his Queensland stable with the thought that the smaller stable may allow the gelding to enjoy the change of environment and expose the ability which we have believed of late that he has. After 2 eye catching performances recently to run 3rd twice at Doomben, the 1,690 metres maiden at Ipswich looked tailor-made for MANNERHEIM. A text book ride from Ryan Maloney to have the gelding on the rails after 300 metres enabled the pair to control the race in the lead and in the words of the race caller “MANNERHEIM travels well…travels dangerously coming to the turn”. The gelding looked the winner a long way from home and one of the most interesting features of the race was just how strongly he continued to gallop after the finishing post, suggesting that 2,000 metres will in time be well to his liking. Ryan said “he was so professional and a pleasure to ride” .

MANNERHEIM was a 2022 Inglis Premier yearling purchase from the draft of Kulani Park. The gelding is out of Miss Helsinki who is a daughter of Australian Champion Miss Finland. Therefore he was named after Carl Mannerheim, the Finnish military leader and President referred to as the Father of modern Finland. MANNERHEIM has now become one of our promising horses to keep an eye on in the autumn and maybe a Queensland winter carnival candidate. If ever a horse had a race won almost from the outset this was one.

Congratulations to the winning MANNERHEIM owners CGO Racing, Peter Aukstinaitis, Martin Ive, Rachel Ive, Paramount Racing (Manager: Kathryn Wood), Ray Aurisch, Kevin Paul Rochford, Felgate Holdings (Manager: Paul Felgate), Astrid Woods, Trent Hibbs, Michael Hibbs, Martin Chong.