HULL’S FITTING HALF CENTURY WINNER

SHOW us a Red Henno – and we’ll show you a winner!

Especially if one of his stock is prepared by talented young Gosford trainer Jake Hull.

Fittingly, the former jockey chalked up a half century of winners on the other side of racing’s fence when the stallion’s daughter Red Chick won at Port Macquarie yesterday.

Ridden by Shannen Llewellyn, the three-year-old filly broke through in the Maiden Plate (1000m) at only her third start, and first on resumption.

In doing so, she upset the $1.35 hotpot Cool Zousain, who has now been runner-up at both starts for his Gosford trainer Adam Duggan.

If Hull’s major client John O’Connor was looking for a trainer to advertise the worth of his stallion Red Henno, he needed to look no further than Hull, who prepares his horses at Feale Park at Somersby.

Of the trainer’s 16 winners so far this season, the last seven have been progeny of Red Henno.

Diva Rouge started the ball rolling at Armidale on March 29 and scored again at Coffs Harbour on April 24, and Dingle Grey (Wyong, April 4 and Quirindi, May 11), Spectorius (Grafton, April 7), and Redzero (Taree, April 21) all followed suit.

Speaking about Red Henno today, Hull said a number of other trainers had asked him about the stallion when he had won races at various tracks above.

“He is certainly an underrated stallion,” he said today.

‘His stock are tough as teak, and want to be racehorses.”

In regard to Red Chick, Hull said he likes her.

“We didn’t race her as a two-year-old, and whilst she wasn’t really ready either late last year, she needed to be educated and ran twice at Grafton (fourth on debut) and Port Macquarie (second) in October and November, and performed as well as she could.

“The spell did her the world of good, and she won an 800m trial at the Beaumont track on May 4.

“My only concern yesterday was that she was resuming on a ‘Heavy 9’ with only the one trial, but she was certainly up to the task and led and won easily.”

Whilst Hull has lost one of his recent winners Spectorius (he has been sold to Hong Kong), he is looking forward to getting two very promising members of his team (Valilee and Ferinzo) back to the races in the near future.

“They both had their first decent gallops earlier in the week, and are a few weeks off being ready to trial,” he said.

“Both horses are in terrific order.”

Valilee, a lightly-raced five-year-old son of Cox Plate winner Adelaide, has raced only four times for three wins and a second, and Cosmic Force four-tear-old Ferinzo has faced the starter on five occasions for three wins also, and two placings.

STORY JOHN CURTIS, MAY 28, 2026