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With a season of experience under his belt, Auld Jock returned to the hurdles in winning fashion at Hawera on Sunday for Peter and Jessica Brosnan.
The six-year-old made four appearances over jumps last year, with his best result a second-placed effort behind former Gr.3 New Zealand Cup (3200m) winner Mondorani over the steeplechase fences at Rotorua in August.
Auld Jock headed to Hawera a fit horse with trio of flat runs under his belt and was an underrated $19.30 chance in the Daryl Hurley Action Moto "Garry Phillips" Maiden Hurdle (2800m), with Run Jakko Run the top-elect at $2.30.
In the hands of Portia Matthews, Auld Jock settled midfield early and remained there for majority of the 2800m contest as Home Rule controlled the tempo from the front. As the pressure came on at the 800m, Run Jakko Run became prominent and looked to be pulling away turning for home, but Auld Jock found another kick and came out on top by a short head in a driving finish.
The son of Adelaide is owned by the Brosnan's, who were especially pleased with his effort after returning to their Matamata base late on Sunday.
"We got home pretty late last night so we've just watched the replay now at lunchtime, and it was good, he didn't get the easiest of runs so he had to be a bit tough," Jessica Brosnan said.
"He's a little bit older and matured a bit this year, I can't really say he's any bigger in size because he's a little mouse of a horse.
"He'd had three runs on the flat so he was pretty fit for yesterday going into it, but he was actually just having a bit of a run around before he goes steeplechasing.
"He'll go between the two with hurdling and chasing like he did last year, we like our horses to be multi-functional as in this day in age we've only got a couple of tracks with live jumps, so they've got to be able to jump the put-up fences, just possibly with an extra lap."
Brosnan has earmarked the Maiden Steeplechase over 3500m at Te Aroha on June 3 for Auld Jock, while stablemate Jakama Krystal may return to the Central Districts on Sunday to contest the Awapuni Hurdles (3000m) at Woodville.
The Jakkalberry mare continued to improve through her second jumping season with two victories and a minor placing last year, and kicked off her new campaign finishing 3 ¼ lengths off Verry Flash in the Norwood Hawera 'Jim Walker' Hurdles (2800m) on Sunday.
"She was good, we were pretty rapt with her race. She didn't have too hard of a run, so that was good going forward for the winter," Brosnan said.
"She's a tough little horse, but just needs a bit of rain, so we'll see what the weather does and she'll either step out on Sunday in the Awapuni Hurdles, or we'll wait for another day.
"She's got a good race in her somewhere."
The Brosnans intend to follow the jumps circuit with a number of their team this season, with one of their recently-trialled horses Rocem stepping out in the Riverrock Farm – Chad Ormsby (1750m) at Taupo on Wednesday.
"We have about 12 horses in work in the winter, and there's probably eight stepping out over the jumps through the season. We've got to support the jumping and keep the numbers up," she said.