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Blackcaps LIVE: Sport Nation ExtraGordon chasing stakes success with Gavelhouse pair
Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk • July 16th, 2026 3:39 pm
Prioress will be one of two runners for Suzy Gordon in Saturday's Listed Agfirst Engineering Opunake Cup (1400m) | Photo: Jane Davidson (Race Images)
Foxton trainer Suzy Gordon will be chasing stakes success at New Plymouth on Saturday with a pair of runners that cost her a combined $17,000.
Gordon has a knack for eyeing a bargain buy on online auction house gavelhouse.com and revitalising their racing careers, with Turn The Ace and Prioress being key examples.
She purchased Turn The Ace for $9,750 and Prioress for $7,250 as tried horses, and each of them have more than recouped their purchase price, with Turn The Ace earning $26,000 in prizemoney for Gordon, while Prioress has amassed $85,000 in two seasons with the Horowhenua horsewoman.
The pair have been in exemplary form of late and Gordon has elected to roll the dice and enter them in Saturday’s Listed Agfirst Engineering Opunake Cup (1400m).
“It is a big ask but they are going well so I thought they are worth having a go with,” she said.
Turn The Ace has finished runner-up in his two starts this preparation and on Saturday he will once again be ridden by stable apprentice Liam Kauri, with the pair to jump from barrier 11.
“He went really well last start and he meets Bonnard (race favourite) 1.5kg better, which he will need,” Gordon said. “He is a happy horse and he is going well.”
Prioress returned to winning form at Hawera last Saturday following her unplaced run in the Listed Tauranga Classic (1400m), and Gordon is looking forward to testing her talent in stakes grade once more where she will be ridden by Masa Hashizume from gate 16.
“She only ever does what she has to,” Gordon said. “It quite often looks like she has just fallen in, but that is her, she hits the front and pulls up.”
Reflecting on the pair, Gordon said she has had plenty of success buying off Gavelhouse, with stablemates Doubtful Sound and Duneagle also being sourced off the website.
“I have had a lot of luck out of these second-hand horses off Gavelhouse,” Gordon said. “I also bought Doubtful Sound for $4,000 and he has won eight races now, and I bought Duneagle for $8,000, and he won about $160,000 with us.”
Gordon is hoping Doubtful Sound can add to his record on Friday when he heads to Awapuni’s synthetic meeting to tackle the Tomo’s Aluminium Services & Peter Baker Glass (1700m).
A synthetic specialist, Doubtful Sound has recorded seven of his eight wins on the surface, but Gordon said he has now become hard to place, and she is chancing her arm with a rise in distance.
“He has got too high in the ratings and he is carrying too much weight,” Gordon said. “Tomorrow is his first go over 1700m, so we will see how that goes. He has drawn 11 out of 11 so that makes it tough as well.”
Gordon is set to line-up seven other runners at the meeting, and rates Luckytobehere as her leading hope in the Spray Specialists & Reilly Joinery Maiden (2140m), where she will be joined by stablemate Richard Farrell, who has placed in his last two starts.
“Luckytobehere is probably my best chance,” Gordon said. “Richard Farrell is in the same race, and he is no world beater, but he goes out there and tries every time.”
