Canyon Wind Knocks-off His Maiden at Balak - 9th July 2025
Wednesday, 09 Jul 2025
PICTURE: Canyon Wind and Todd Pannell are led-in by Molly Theodore after securing victory at Balaklava on the 9th of July 2025.
The lightly raced 3-year-old gelding Canyon Wind was able to break his maiden at the Balaklava mid-weeks on a bitterly cold, wet and wintery afternoon. The son of Shamoline Warrior was able to land just better than midfield with cover and was able to improve into the race at the right time and chase down the leader and hot pot Territorian in a well-timed run by Todd Pannell.
It was just reward for the gelding, who was third up and had been building into his preparation with a last start third at Bordertown over the 1100m. Stephen Theodore, post-race on racing.com, advised "I got Todd to go to Bordertown and have a ride, and he said just step it up and take the earmuffs off and you'll be winning next start". That is exactly what transpired, with Canyon Wind stepping up to the 1300m, while Stephen removed the earmuffs with Todd Pannell remarking post-race on racing.com that, "that little gear change helped".
It looks to be a bright future for the gelding, who is only at career start four, with Stephen advising post-race that "he's only three and he's lightly raced, so he's a nice horse in the making".
The immediate plans for Canyon Wind will likely entail one more run before a spell, Stephen advised post-race that "he'll probably only have one more and I say he's done a really good job but he's going to get out to further, to a mile at least, and that's when we'll probably see the best of him".
The STR team were pleased to get this result for the ownership group of Fiteni Thoroughbreds, led by John Fiteni.
The lightly raced 3-year-old gelding Canyon Wind was able to break his maiden at the Balaklava mid-weeks on a bitterly cold, wet and wintery afternoon. The son of Shamoline Warrior was able to land just better than midfield with cover and was able to improve into the race at the right time and chase down the leader and hot pot Territorian in a well-timed run by Todd Pannell.
It was just reward for the gelding, who was third up and had been building into his preparation with a last start third at Bordertown over the 1100m. Stephen Theodore, post-race on racing.com, advised "I got Todd to go to Bordertown and have a ride, and he said just step it up and take the earmuffs off and you'll be winning next start". That is exactly what transpired, with Canyon Wind stepping up to the 1300m, while Stephen removed the earmuffs with Todd Pannell remarking post-race on racing.com that, "that little gear change helped".
It looks to be a bright future for the gelding, who is only at career start four, with Stephen advising post-race that "he's only three and he's lightly raced, so he's a nice horse in the making".
The immediate plans for Canyon Wind will likely entail one more run before a spell, Stephen advised post-race that "he'll probably only have one more and I say he's done a really good job but he's going to get out to further, to a mile at least, and that's when we'll probably see the best of him".
The STR team were pleased to get this result for the ownership group of Fiteni Thoroughbreds, led by John Fiteni.
