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Vale Postponed; Mighty effort rewarded at Pukekohe;

Vale Postponed

Westbury Stud has announced that popular stallion Postponed succumbed to a health issue on Friday and was humanely euthanized.

The 21-year-old son of Summer Squall, fondly known as "Postie", began his stud career at David and Masey Benjamin's Fayette Park Stud and was transferred to Stoneybridge Farm when Fayette Park closed before arriving at Westbury in 2009.

Postponed, who often flew under the radar in official sire's rankings, was a member of a select group of stallions who have produced four or more Group One winners in their careers, with two of these in recent years through 2016 Zabeel Classic (2000m) winner Consensus and the 2017 Livamol Classic (2040m) winner, Wait A Sec.

A Group Two winner in the USA, Postponed has produced 251 winners and 14 individual stakes winners of more than $18,600,000 in prizemoney.

Among Postponed's leading performers were Dorabella, Pasta Post, Consensus, Wait A Sec, Postman's Daughter, and Mr O'Ceirin. - NZ Racing Desk

Mighty effort rewarded at Pukekohe

Local galloper Mighty Me showed his penchant for his home track at Pukekohe when he downed a quality line-up of rating 82 runners over 1200m on Sunday.

The lightly raced eight-year-old held out the spirited challenges of Midnight Runner and Excelleration to record his fifth career victory from just 24 starts and his second from just four runs at the venue.

Trainer Joanne Surgenor noted the improved track conditions, which saw the Pukekohe surface rated a Dead5, had played their part in the victory.

“He’s been going some nice races in his last couple although I felt he might need a better track now,” she said.

“Nice tracks seem to suit him so we will keep going for a bit longer as normally we would have turned him out for the summer by now.”

The race saw the return of one of last season’s top three-year-olds in Demonetization, who was making a fresh start in a new campaign after injury saw him put aside following a victory in the Gr.2 Auckland Guineas (1600m).

The All Too Hard entire was sent out favourite for the race and was seen putting in good strides in the closing stages to finish an eye-catching fourth.