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Potential buyers can give up on their pursuit of the impressive Awapuni debut winner Constant Barrage.
“There’s been plenty of agents after him, but he’s not for sale,” trainer Geoff Haigh said.
Constant Barrage is raced by his Levin breeder John Perkins, who is determined to keep hold of the Raise The Flag four-year-old after letting go of his older brother Broadside, who won two of his three starts from Haigh’s stable.“John sold him to Gai Waterhouse last year and he’s done extremely well for her,” Haigh said.
Broadside has two wins and a placing from his three starts for the Sydney trainer.“They are very similar types in that they are both very clean-winded horses,” Haigh said. “Constant Barrage pulled up as if he didn’t have a race on Saturday and the other fellow was just the same.”
Haigh was in two minds whether to run the gelding on a heavy track and any concerns he had were dismissed by jockey Johnathan Parkes.“I thought I should have scratched him, but Johnathan, who has ridden him at the trials, said don’t worry – he’ll be a class above them,” he said.
Haigh also has Constant Barrage’s half-brother with the mare, Anam Cara, now in foal to Pentire.“The Alamosa two-year-old has just been broken in,” he said. “I trained the mother, who was by Straight Strike, and she was only a wee thing with plenty of speed, but she couldn’t win a race.
“It just shows that good horses can come from anywhere.”While Constant Barrage isn’t for sale, his promising stablemate High Quality is. “I own him and there’s a few people interested,” Haigh said.
High Quality finished runner-up on debut at Woodville in October and the Handsome Ransom four-year-old had no trouble going one better at Awapuni last month.