Hampton Banner left Lincoln Farms’ Pukekohe property this morning bound for Perth.
Surf’s up! Hampton Banner sold to Perth and partners switch into promising babies
By Barry Lichter • 26 February 2020
Improved three-year-old Hampton Banner has been sold and flew out to Perth this morning.
The Bettor’s Delight colt, winner of three of his 10 starts for Lincoln Farms, will join the stable of Mark Lewis, son of legendary driver Chris Lewis and will be raced by the same connections who are enjoying success with former Kiwi Bill Haley.
Pukekohe trainer Ray Green said Hampton Banner, whose stablename is Surf, was sure to do a good job in Western Australia, where a number of former Lincoln Farms’ pacers have excelled.
“He’s morphed into a nice racehorse, but he’s not quite good enough to frighten the really good ones, he’s in the next tier down.
“I’m sure he could have won a few more races here but now is a prudent time to sell him.
Hampton Banner showed a terrific turn of foot in this win at Auckland earlier this month.“It was a good offer and a good business decision to sell him now. The more we raced him here the more he would have devalued.”
Green had Hampton Banner in the Northern Derby Prelude field at Auckland on Friday night, against stablemates Copy That, Tommy Lincoln and Man Of Action.
“He was good enough to be in there but not good enough to win it.”
Hampton Banner was raced by Lincoln Farms’ John and Lynne Street along with Ian Kedzlie, Dennis Ebert, Kevin and Annette Crosswell, Steve MacDonald, Robert Seebeck and Chris Prutton.
In keeping with Lincoln Farms’ policy of placing its partners in other horses after sales, all have now joined the ownership of promising two-year-olds Franco Nandor and American Dealer, who both race on Friday night.
Hampton Banner, who went through a lot of growing pains last season, won his first race at Cambridge last November and went on to win twice at Auckland, clocking a slick 2:39.3 in beating subsequent Victoria Oaks winner Dr Susan.
Two starts back he showed very high speed from last to reel in the field and win as he liked by two and a half lengths.
A brother to six-race winner Scarlett Banner, Hampton Banner is out of the Christian Cullen mare Surf And Sand and cost $60,000 as a yearling.
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Nathan’s comments
Wednesday night at Cambridge
Race 1: Lincoln Maree
5.11pm
“She’s finding her feet and was a bit unlucky at Taupo. She put in a few rough ones out of the gate - she was like that early in her prep and could just jump out of it - but she’s generally doing things right now. She trained well on Saturday and, with the right run, could run top three.”
Race 3: The Night Fox
6pm
“He won really well on the second day at Hawera and if he races anything like he’s training he’ll be hard to beat. He ran a 27.3 quarter during the week and I was just sitting on him. I’ll tell Craig to go forward, set an even tempo and cut him loose at the 600. I think he’s our best of the night.”
Race 6: Lincoln Lover
7.35pm
“Hopefully he’s improved since Taupo when Fergie drove him a treat in front. I actually think he’s better coming off something’s back but I’ll leave it up to Fergie. He’s up a bit in grade but has the right draw to be in it all the way.”
Ray’s comments
Friday night at Auckland
Race 5: Lincoln Wave
7.32pm
“He had an easy run last week and he can go a lot faster than that. He should be hard to beat. It won’t matter if he doesn’t find the lead from six, he’ll be just as effective coming from off the pace. He’s a pretty classy horse, classier than most of those against him.”
