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Live sport on SN this weekendChristmas comes early for Aussie raiders
Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk • September 20th, 2026 5:20 pm
Christmas on his way to winning the Ben & Ryan Foote Racing Great New Zealand Steeplechase (6200m) at Te Aroha on Sunday | Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images)
Christmas has come early for Australian trainer Paul Preusker after his horse, which bears the same name, took out the Ben & Ryan Foote Racing Great New Zealand Steeplechase (6200m) at Te Aroha on Sunday.
Preusker bought the now 10-year-old gelding out of France several years ago with a jumping future in mind, but it wasn’t until this year that he made his debut over fences, and he has proven to be a dab hand at the caper.
He had six jumping starts in Australia this year, winning the Casterton Chase (3800m), before finishing fourth in the Grand National Steeplechase (4500m) at Ballarat last month.
In search of further targets and more distance, Preusker set his sights towards New Zealand and identified the Great New Zealand Steeplechase as the perfect assignment. It didn’t take much for him to convince regular rider, Darryl Horner Jnr, to cross the Tasman to ride him, with Horner having ridden in New Zealand as a teenager.
Horner took a conservative approach aboard Christmas in the marathon feature, settling him at the back of the pack, well off the pace, where he remained for the first two laps of the race. With 800m to go, Christmas had all but one ahead of him, but that quickly changed as Horner asked him to improve around his rivals.
The son of Palace Episode began to steadily improve and found himself just outside frontrunners Smug and Captains Run at the top of the home straight. Christmas’ staying qualities came to the fore in the concluding stages when he was able to fight off Captains Run to win by 1-1/4 lengths, with Smug a further 3-1/2 lengths back in third.
Horner showed his emotion when standing high in the irons to celebrate the win as he crossed the finish line.
“It is absolutely unreal,” he said. “I am a confident sort of guy, but I wasn’t overly confident coming into it. With a race that is over that distance, everything needs to go your way, and it certainly didn’t the first two laps.
“It took us a long time to get into a rhythm jumping. He is a funny little horse, he is hard to work out, you don’t know whether to ride him into his jumps or sit quiet. I did a bit of everything and not much worked.
“The further we went the better we got. It wasn’t until we got to about the half mile that I actually gave myself a solid chance, and he is such a grinder.
“Big hats off to Paul and his team, everyone knows Paul is an astute horseman, and he showed that again today. That horse hasn’t raced since our Grand National in Australia and he looked absolutely great in the yard today, I have never seen him look like that before.”
Horner was glad to be back riding a winner in New Zealand, something he last experienced 18 years ago as a fresh-faced teenager.
“I haven’t been back to New Zealand since I was a 15-year-old kid,” he said. “I rode a double at Avondale and I was too homesick, so I got on a plane and went home. This is the first time I have been back since with another winner, and it feels good.
“I love New Zealand and New Zealand racing, it is embedded in history. It is not very often that the Aussies come over here, but after this one today Paul might start a new trend.”
Preusker was rapt to get the win and he is hoping it will be the first of many in New Zealand.
“Words can’t describe how I am feeling at the moment,” he said. “It is a good achievement and a good first season (jumping) for the horse, and I look forward to next year.
“We bought him from France for a jumper, but it just took a while to get him to work with me and be tough enough for it. It has been a patient game and a good effort by the owners for sticking with him, and they have been well rewarded.
“He is not a fast horse but the more jumping the better and a little bit of extra ground today really helped him.
“Everyone here has been great, the hospitality has been second to none. Hopefully I am back next year.”
