Racing: Wiremu Pinn wings his way to Melbourne in winning form

Wiremu Pinn turned Awapuni into his own personal advertising platform ahead of his move to Victoria today.

The talented apprentice flies to Melbourne to meet Racing Victoria officials in the hope of being allowed to transfer his apprenticeship to trainer Michael Kent Sr for at least the next three months.

Pinn has been informed he can claim 3kg in Victoria and that would make him a sought-after rider in winter and give him the perfect opportunity to make a name for himself should he want to stay longer.

Pinn’s talent has rarely been in doubt but he used Saturday’s meeting at Awapuni to hammer home his skills before he arrives in Australia. He rode four winners, as did Jonathan Parkes, with Kate Hercock the only jockey to break up the Pinn-Parkes show.

“I have to meet with the officials from Racing Victoria on Monday, and if my licence is granted, I am excited to get straight into it,” says Pinn.

His partner, Tayla Mitchell, faces a different challenge for the rest of the season, as she leads the NZ apprentice jockeys’ premiership after two wins at Te Rapa on Saturday. Closest rival Kelsey Hannan rode three winners, so the gap between the pair is just four wins with two months to go.

Stradbroke dream

Dragon Leap’s return to form at Doomben on Saturday has his connections dreaming of a spot in the A$3 million Stradbroke on June 10.

Dragon Leap was a mammoth second after racing three-wide — the winner covering far less ground — in the A$300,000 BRC Sprint.

“We are keen to press on to the Stradbroke if we can get in, and Lance [O’Sullivan, co-trainer] and I were thrilled to see him hit the line so hard,” said co-trainer Andrew Scott.

If Dragon Leap can get into the Stradbroke field, he should get a light weight in what won’t be the strongest edition of Queensland’s favourite race. Dragon Leap is rated a $26 chance by Australian bookies, the same price as stablemate Dark Destroyer, who finished well back in the same race when clearly in need of a run after an eight-month break from racing.

Early abandonment

Race meeting abandonments are rarely met with universal approval but yesterday’s Hawera meeting being called off was a no-brainer.

The track copped 47ml of rain in the 24 hours leading up to a track inspection at 6am yesterday, which showed the track had surface water.

While NZTR now have protocols for transferring abandoned meetings to synthetic tracks, should there be one in the region, that wasn’t possible yesterday because of the late notice and two of the eight races being jumping races.