Canterbury galloper Xcuses Xcuses continued her brilliant summer form with a hard-fought win at Waikouaiti yesterday.
The John Blackadder-trained mare was being chased hard in the final stages of her race, but she grimly stuck to her task to hold out placegetters Barabas and Nowhere Man.
The 1250m win followed her excellent December form when she ran second at Ashburton after scoring an upset win at the Cromwell Cup meeting.
Xcuses Xcuses signalled she was ready to lift her game with a desperately unlucky run at the New Zealand Cup carnival in November and since then she has not looked back.
''Jake Bayliss rode her at the New Zealand Cup meeting and said she was a certainty beaten and that she would win her next start.
''He came down and rode her at Cromwell and she won there before running second at Ashburton.''
Xcuses Xcuses had performed fairly in four South Island starts before her Riccarton run. She had previously raced from John Bary's Hasting stable before shifting south.
Blackadder puts his charge's improvement since then down to her thriving in her new surrounds.
''It is just a different environment for her down here. We train on the beach quite a bit.
''That just freshens her up instead of going round and round on the track all the time.''
Blackadder will continue to race Xcuses Xcuses while she is in such good form and plans to step her up in distance to 1400m at next week's Reefton Cup.
''It is a bit of a family thing going to the Reefton Cup. We are trying to target that race and all of our family will come for it.''
Xcuses Xcuses was ridden by Tanya Jonker, who scored a winning double in the saddle yesterday.
She guided Theonlyway to a maiden victory in race 6 for trainer Kenny Moore.
