Reigning South African champion jockey Warren Kennedy celebrated a champagne sunset to 2022 and his first few months in New Zealand, when registering a hat-trick including his maiden Gr1 success at Pukekohe Park in the Pacific Ocean island country on Boxing Day.
After delivering Defibrillate with a powerful late run to capture the Gr1 Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic, Kennedy said that the race really went smoothly.
Warren Kennedy drives Defibrillate to a thrilling Gr1 score (Pic – Cambridge Stud)
“He switched off all the way. He gave me a kick at the 400m mark and started unwinding from there. He’s a good horse. Fantastic Group One!”
Defibrillate is trained by Graham Richardson and Rogan Norvall.
Kennedy earlier won on Habana who showed a terrific turn of foot to score an emphatic win in the valuable Stella Artois 1500 Championship Final. The son of Zoustar’s effort continued a fine run of form for trainer Lance Noble and Kennedy.
Kennedy made it a clean sweep of the last three races on the card when he won the tenth on Uderzo for Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott.
Not to be outdone, Kennedy’s countryman Craig Zackey won the fifth on Synchronize for trainer Mark Walker.
Warren Kennedy left South Africa in early October and has made a flying start. From 127 rides he has 21 winners at a strike-rate of 17%.
