Payne out to add to jumps season success

Saturday 26 July 2014, 12:03pm

Trainer Patrick Payne has already prepared the winners of some of the richest jumps races this year and is a strong chance to cap his season at Sandown on Sunday.

Payne has Sea King and Krase in the $250,000 Grand National Steeplechase while Fieldmaster is favourite for the $100,000 JJ Houlahan Hurdle.

The two events also bring to a close the 2014 JJ Houlahan Jumps Championship which comprises 16 feature jumps races in South Australia and Victoria and recognises the horse, trainer and jockey who have compiled the most points during the series.

Payne trails series leader Darren Weir by six in the trainers' category.

But Weir, trainer of series winner Gotta Take Care, is not represented in either of the two jumps races on Sunday.

Payne has prepared the winners of the Great Eastern Steeplechase (Lord Of The Song), Grand Annual Steeplechase (Chaparro), Australian Steeplechase (Krase), Kevin Lafferty Hurdle and Grand National Hurdle (Sea King) in 2014.

Sea King is Payne's leading chance to add the Grand National Steeplechase, but he will be up against two-time winner Bashboy.

"He is going to the races in fantastic order," Payne said of Sea King.

Bashboy's rider Steven Pateman has topped the jockeys' standings in the JJ Houlahan Championship the past three years but trails Brad McLean by six points this year.

Pateman does not have a ride in the hurdle on Sunday while McLean will ride Maythehorsebemagic in the Grand National and Cats Fun in the JJ Houlahan Hurdle.

Payne is not conceding the Grand National to Bashboy with Sea King, while he believes Fieldmaster will be hard to beat on the 64kg limit.

Fieldmaster was run down by Gotta Take Care in the Australian Hurdle on May 31 at his most recent start.

"He's well-weighted and providing he has good luck I think he will run a terrific race," Payne said.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »