 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Moments after winning the $180,000 Group 1 NRM Sires' Stakes Final at Addington on Tuesday, Stephen Reid still couldn't believe it. "I've got the good horse," said the trainer of Gold Ace, adding "finally" to the end of his sentence. "At times in the past I've had people say to me that I've got a real good one, and it hasn't turned out that way. But now I have - and I think I'm due. This is the best moment for me, ever!"
Reidman had every right to be wallowing in disbelief following the event, because the way the race panned out Gold Ace had no right to win it. Drawn the outside of the front line, driver Peter Ferguson had little option but to ease back as firstly Delight Brigade and then Hands Christian led. The latter was literally 'getting away with murder' in front, so at the winning post with a lap to travel Ferguson thought enough was enough and brought the three-wide train forward.
Gold Ace was stuck out there without cover from that point onwards, and on a day when 10 of the 12 winners either led or trailed, his task into a stiff breeze looked forlorn. But there was still plenty of fight in the Bettor's Delight colt's belly as the field swung for home, and he powered down centre track to nab Hands Christian right on the line.
"I thought we were no hope," Reid said. "Having to drop back from that draw, we needed them to go hard up front so we could finish over the top of them. But I was listening to the quarters as they unfolded, and when the first was thirty-one followed by a thirty down the back, I didn't give him a chance."
What made Gold Ace's victory all the more sweeter for Reid is the fact that he and his wife Wendy own 37.5 percent of him. "We put our nuts on the line to buy him," Reid said, casting his mind back to June and July when he and former training partner Graeme Rogerson were about to go their seperate ways. "I didn't want to be paying training fees for the horse to be somewhere else, that didn't make any sense. Rogey and I bought him at the Sales and put a few other people into the ownership with us, but he didn't want to buy us out and initially we didn't want to take his share either. It was all really amicable, but it went backwards and forwards for months."
Deep down inside, something was tellig Reid not to let this one go. "I had a gut feeling he was a good one," Reid said, pointing out that at the time Gold Ace had made seven appearances for just one win. "I picked him out on type as a yearling. He was out of a lightly-raced In The Pocket mare, and I liked the Bettor's Delights too. And he was just a notch below them at two; even when he won the Sales Series Consolation down here in May he was still immature. We've sold a lot of horses over the years, but I said to Wendy...maybe we take a punt with this one and hang onto it. Because if we turn him out, and he lifts, we might just have one that's up to the real good ones. I think it's safe to say that he's lifted."
Joining the couple in the ownership of Gold Ace are Auckland construction company owner Michael Ng, who's raced harness horses since 1997 and "this is the best one, by far"; the colt's breeder Derek Moore who's been in him all the way through; and the Moore-managed D D Syndicate, a group of 10 North Island enthusiasts that Reid says he's indebted to Gold Ace's breeder for organising when the need arose.
From here the programme for Gold Ace in undecided, apart from the main target being the 3-year-old Sales Series Pace at the end of next month. "There's so many big races for them at three, you've got to be a bit careful," Reid said. "If I manage him right, I think that as a 5-year-old he could not only be a Cup horse - but win a really big race. And it gets a bit fuzzy in the tummy when you realise you could own thirty-seven and a half percent of a star."
One thing's for sure, nothing could pry Gold Ace's driver from the sulky from here on in. "I asked Reidman at the start of the season whether he had any 3-year-olds, and told him to put me on the best one," Ferguson said with a smile. "I thought his first-up run for third was average; then he went better when he won at Cambridge, but when he won again at Auckland on October 22 he fair-dinkum caned them and never left second gear. That gave me a lot of confidence for today - and Reidman does too, because he's so enthusiastic about this horse. I've got a lot of respect for him. He's always been a good trainer, always. All he's needed is some horses to show it."
Ferguson said it was great to get back into the 'Group 1 zone', believing it was May last year with Flying Pocketlands when he last won one, and before that you had to go back to the days of Mi Muchacho. He'd pretty confident that Cup Day's Group 1 won't be Gold Ace's last, either. "This horse just doesn't know anything yet - wait until he does!"
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 11Nov2010
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Nearea Franco is about to become a mum, but you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her. That's because her McArdle baby was transferred to a surrogate mare, who's due to foal sometime soon. And Nearea Franco celebrated her pending parenthood in the best possible fashion when she won the $40,000 Group 3 Firestone Free-For-All at Addington on Cup Day.
The mare's trainer Steven McRae described her return to form as "a long hard battle", but to see the Nearea Franco of old turn up and win as she liked on Tuesday, it's a war that McRae's obviously winning. The staff at Spreydon Lodge have had to climb not one but two mountains over the last 12 months as they strived to get their stable star back...first there was the cracked pastern she was diagnosed with just before the big mares' races in January this year, then in late August she developed what McRae says was a "pipe corn" in her near-side front hoof.
"The pastern problem had been niggling her for a long time, so it was good to finally diagnose what was troubling her and fix it," he said. "Craig Thornley always maintained that she'd never felt as good as she did when she won the Jewels back in May 2008; when the pressure went on, she didn't respond. So we knew there had to be something wrong with her. For a big horse she's got a lot of speed, but she hadn't shown it for a long time."
Safely through her recovery from the operation where screws were inserted, McRae then plotted a course for the New Zealand Cup and had Nearea Franco at the trialling stage by the start of the season. "It was after she trialled in late August that she developed the corn," he said. "And it took a long time to dig it out; Derek Jones and Grant Nyhan deserve a lot of credit for all the work they did with her. We lost three weeks because of it, though. The NZ Cup had been the main aim ever since the start of the season, because we missed away in it last year and never had a chance. But I've got too much respect for the race and the others in it to line up with just one run under her belt."
That one run was at Kaikoura in their Cup, a race which she'd won last year, and her eighth mightn't have looked any good on paper but McRae took a lot of heart from the performance. "I was rapt with her run up there. She couldn't get around the last bend, and lost momentum. Then after she got balanced and came again she got squeezed up and galloped near the post. So the run was better than it looked. The bends didn't worry her the previous year because she was in front and close to the marker pegs."
McRae confirms that the 'r' word (retirement) did come up for dicussion while Nearea Franco's career was delayed by setbacks, and it basically came down to her being given 'one more chance'. "When they took her embryo out it was about a week before she was diagnosed with the cracked pastern, so if it'd happened seven days earlier she probably would've been retired there and then. It's funny how things happen like that."
"I reackon she's as good as we've ever had her, this season. She's a happy horse, and doesn't shake all the time she's at the races anymore, and she never used to be able to hold condition either but she's really big and strong now. Probably all of that relates to the niggly pastern problem she had."
Initially McRae wasn't going to line up in Friday's Free-For-All, but post-race on Tuesday he was still toying with the idea. "I thought that three runs in ten days might've been a bit tough this early in the season, but she didn't have a hard run today and seemed to win it pretty easy so we'll keep our options open," he said.
"She'll still be served again sometime in December, and all going well will race right through to the Inter-Dominions. She's definitely going to be a hard horse to replace. It's great for the staff to have a nice horse at the races, because they get a big kick out of it. We've all enjoyed the ride though, and it's something you never take for granted either because you never know when it's going to end."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 11Nov2010
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Murray Tapper & Stylish Monarch |
Sitting amongst the crowd at Addington to watch Monkey King capture his second consecutive NZ Cup last Tuesday, Murray Tapper hoped it wasn't the only big two-mile event that Ricky May would win during the week.
Three sleeps later, those wishes came true when May extracted Stylish monarch off a tight spot three-deep on the fence and urged him to a narrow victory in the $200,000 Group 1 Heller's Dominion Trot.
"Stylish Monarch's whole season so far has been aimed at this race today," Tapper said afterwards, knowing that every other trainer in the race would've felt the same. "And it means a lot to a guy like me. We're just a little stable from Timaru, and don't have a big team of horses or thousands of dollars to spend at the Sales. For anybody with trotters, this is our New Zealand Cup and it's pretty surreal to think we've won it."
With 11 wins and 10 placings from his 27 appearances prior to the start of this season, his 'CV' already including a Group 1 victory and runner-up prize in the most recent Rowe Cup, Stylish Monarch had all the right credentials to win at his first crack at a Dominion.
Raced by Anne Patterson, the son of Monarchy went 'bang' first-up for 2010/11 when he won at Addington early last month, looking a lot more advanced than when he resumed at the same time last year, but if anything the 7-year-old them seemed a notch below his own high standards when running third at his next three outings - appearing to have every chance to finish closer each time.
Even the public's support reflected this last Friday...a horse that had gone out favourite more often than not was suddenly showing double figures. "He probably should've finished a length closer at Kaikoura," Tapper reflected. "Ricky said he was just cruising in front. But he was looking at all the seasgulls and everything else that was going on that day, and didn't seem to knuckle into it when it mattered - perhaps he thought there was another lap to go. I specifically lined him up at Kaikoura because he was still big in condition, and thought the trip there and back plus his race would've been like having two races together."
"Then on Cup Day here, seeing his race live I thought he should've run second at least. But after watching the replay I changed my mind, because he was held up down the back straight and again at the two hundred. So I was always happy leading into this race, never disappointed."
Arriving on-course last Friday, Tapper thought 'I've got a show here', noting that the Dominion field didn't boast a champion like Lyell Creek or Take A Moment but nevertheless was "one of the strongest fields overall for a long, long time". And the icing on the cake was Stylish Monarch walking away with a NZ Record next to his name, his time of 4:02.9 slicing more than two and a half seconds off the previous mark held by Take A Moment. "It's nice to have that (the record), but it wouldn't have worried me if they went 4:10." Tapper claims. "It proves that he can do the times, but I suppose we've always known that."
For now, Stylish Monarch is having an easy week as Tapper plans his next assault. "I think he deserves it, doesn't he? Not too much of an easy time though, otherwise he'll get too bulky on me. We're looking to go north sometime next month."
Tapper has been training full-time now for about five seasons, and has 14 in work. He paid tribute to his brother Kim for helping with the team, and also made special mention of Samantha Ottley who's been "a vital part of the operation" for three years. The heights that Stylish Monarch is reaching are a world away from the 18 seasons Tapper spent as a freezing worker.
"I was getting too many horses around me, and too many people were asking to train one for them. So I thought we'd give it a go; if it didn't work out, I could always go back and get another job. But we've survived, that's the main thing. Everybody dreams of getting a horse like this, you just never think you're going to."
Now that a Dominion has been added to his trotter's list of accolades, Tapper says everything else from here on in is a bonus. "Whatever happens we're going to have a great season. There's the three biggies isn't there...this, the Inter-Doms and the Rowe Cup. The first one's in the bag now, so let's see if we can go and get another."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HR Weekly 17Nov2010
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Prior to Cup Week this year, Monkey King was like a lot of other horses in the record books of the elite.
He'd won a New Zealand Cup, and a Free-For-All, but put himself in pretty select company by doing both in the one season last year - not to mention adding an Auckland Cup and the Miracle Mile to his Horse of the Year season of 2009/10. But now he's claimed a piece of history that may never be repeated again, because he's done the 'double-double'.
Monkey King's dual Cup Week successes in consecutive years are an amazing achievement, and no amount of accolades that he's received or praise he's been showered with in the interim are unbefitting to the little black pacer from Dancingonmoonlight Farm who's known affectionately as 'Sam'. Quite simply, he's turned out to be one of the greatest pacers this country's ever produced. If not the greatest.
Sam's trainer Benny Hill admitted to being "pretty nervous" on the morning of Show Day this time around. "The Cup was a bit different because we'd been there and done it already, but after winning that and having a chance to do the double again, that's when I felt it," he said. "We were pretty happy to do it once, and never dreamed that we could repeat last year. I suppose I put the pressure on myself though - that's part of my job."
Hill thought Monkey King might've been a sitting duck in front in the $200,000 Group 1 Woodlands NZ Free-For-All, but in the end he didn't need reminding that it's usually his pacer that zooms home past the opposition - not the other way round.
For the 8-year-old's now regular driver Ricky May, who's partnered Monkey King in 23 of his 38 career victories and tallied up nearly $2.7 million in stakes while sitting behind him, he never stops being astonished. "I don't know where he gets all his 'muscle' from,"May said, shaking his head as Monkey King was led away for a wash after the Free-For-All. "He's a very clever little horse. He dropped the bit down the back today when Lance (Justice, on Smoken Up) was up alongside him. I almost had to scrub him up - but he just knew it wasn't time to get serious yet. Round the home turn when Lance stared yelling at his horse, that's when Monkey grabbed the bit again and took off."
May was the star driver on the big stage during Addington's glamour carnival, as he also won the Dominion with Stylish Monarch and snared a unique double of his own. "It's been an unbelievable week. You can never not be confident with Monkey, but he needed everything to go his way to win the Cup; in the end it didn't, but he still won."
May will join forces with Monkey King again at the end of next week, when they'll be shooting for their second consecutive Miracle Mile title across the Tasman. With what we've just witnessed over Cup Week, who says they can't put another one of those in the 'CV' again as well?
Looking way down the track to next year's Cup carnival in Christchurch, Hill says all going well he'll be back again with Sam - which means the rest of us could be reaching for those record book one more time. Australia might well have their Inter-Dominion freal Blacks A Fake - but we've got the 'Monkey'. "Age will catch up with him someday," Hill says matter-of-factly. It's just a case of looking after him. But we'll be trying, for sure."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 17Nov2010
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Because numbers are thin at the top end, I Can Doosit will line up in the Group 1 NZ Trotting Championship at Addington this Friday night. That's half the reason why, the other is the horse's undeniable talent - which was on display again in no uncertain terms when I Can Doosit waltzed away with last Saturday's $25,000 Lone Star Bar & Cafe 4-Year-Old Trotters Championship. The son of Muscles Yankee joined in and breezed on by near the business end of the 2600m Group 3 event, putting away his stablemate Pocaro and the rampant pacemaker McCready with ease as he won in a super quick 3.18.
Co-trainer Mark Purdon wasn't in the sulky this time, the reins instead being handed to Blair Orange as Purdon sat behind Pocaro, and he got to experience I Can Doosit's continuing dominance from another perspective. This was win number eight from just 12 starts and the fifth in succession for I Can Doosit, who was having his first look around Addington after a northern assault that saw him burst onto the trotting scene.
"There's been real improvement in him over the last eight to ten weeks," Purdon said, not meaning to state the obvious. "And there's some very nice horses in that intermediate grade in Auckland, but at his last start before returning south I was just so impressed with how he picked them up inside the last one hundred and fifty metres. He's a very, very promising type."
I Can Doosit is the third foal of Chiola Hanover mare Sheezadoosie, following in the footsteps of Continentaldoosie (1 win) and his highly regarded year-older full-brother Sno's Big Boy (11 wins to date). Purdon knows the breed well too, because he trained Sheezadoosie throughout her career and drove her in all but one of her seven victories. "She was never a naturally-gaited trotter," he recalled. "She's got better as she got older, but she was never fool-proof and wasn't one of those horses you could throw the reins at. So she did pretty well to get as far as she did."
Purdon considers himself "very lucky" to have I Can Doosit in the stable. The gelding was bred by Ken Breckon's company Breckon Bloodstock Ltd and is owned by a syndicate he manages called Breckon Bloodstock, and if I Can Doosit hadn't been a late withdrawal from the Sales as a youngster he could have well been doing all his winning for someone else. "He got hurt, doing significant damage to the tendons around the fetlock in a hind leg after being caught in a fence," Purdon said. "I had inspected him at Yarndley Farms leading up to the Sales, and he was a real standout. There's no doubt that he would have been a $100,000 yearling had he not got injured."
I Can Doosit began his career at Winton less than a year ago, running third on debut before winning at Oamaru and then Timaru during May. "He just scraped into the Jewels, but if anything he was on the way 'down' again because he'd done a lot in a short time. Tony (Herlihy) drove him for us that day, and he said the horse wanted to do it but just couldn't handle himself over a mile. Pocaro was way above him at that stage; he's really closed the gap now."
Purdon has both trained and sat behind some star trotters in his time, and even though he knows I Can Doosit's not quite up there yet, he says the 4-year-old's not far away. "He's such a great stayer, that's his forte, and I think his performance and time last week reflects that he's ready for the next level. You can do anything with him - go to the front or sit parked; he's a real nice horse. And we haven't ruled out this year's Rowe Cup with him either."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 8Apr10
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Those who backed the winner of last year's NZ Derby would have probably cleaned up again in the Easter Cup on Saturday night. Because the same horse won both.
Sleepy Tripp emerged as a genuine open class force when he took out this year's $80,000 Stallion Station-sponsored Group 1, overcoming a lengthy enough early gallop to sprint past the more favoured trio of Baileys Dream, Bettor's Strike and Second Wind late in the piece.
It was a rare Easter time double and one achieved as quickly as possible by the son of Courage Under Fire, coming just 12 months since he was on top of the 3-year-old tree after his Derby victory, but it signalled that Sleepy Tripp has now furnished into the horse he promised to be all along.
Co-trainer/driver Mark Purdon didn't think it would be him doing the saluting at the end of the 3200m feature though. "I thought he'd blown it," Purdon said, referring to Sleepy Tripp's uncharacteristic early mistake. "Especially since he was so far from them once he settled. I know Bettor's Strike and Baileys Dream were still behind us when we got going, but we were giving the early leaders a fair start. And we were lucky the way the race panned out after that, getting the one-one behind Bettor's Strike for the last lap and a bit when Bailey crossed to the front."
By his own high standards, Sleepy Tripp had been slightly below his best in the weeks leading up to his first real test in the 'big time'. "His form had slipped," admitted Purdon, citing the race at Cambridge in January where he was beaten into fifth behind Tintin In America as being a point where the head-scratching began. I knew what my expectations of him were, and he wasn't living up to them. The night he ran second to Crystal Star at Forbury, Blair (Orange) said he probably should have won. But he must've picked up a bit of a bug in Auckland, and we've treated him three times since he returned home. Bill (Bishop) is very, very accurate in the blood tests he does, and there was just something lingering in the background. So we just did what we could, and I knew that in time his own system would fix whatever was troubling him. Prior to Invercargill was the first time there were signs his blood was coming right, and this week I could just tell by the way he was in the coat and eye that he was near his best again."
Raced by his Pleasant Point breeders Terry and Adrienne Taylor, Sleepy Tripp has now won 11 of his 25 starts and last Saturday night's victory tipped him over $520,000 in stakes. Three of those victories have been at Group level, with two 1's and a 2 in the cabinet so far, and Sleepy Tripp will give the couple every chance of adding to that when he heads north again shortly for the Taylor Mile and Messenger double-header followed by the Harness Jewels. "He's a lot stronger to sit behind now," said Purdon, comparing Sleepy Tripp this term to what he was like at three. And I'm really looking forward to next season with him, especially since the Inter-Dominions are here too."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 8Apr10
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Sixteen years ago, Dean Taylor blew his first chance to win the New Zealand Derby. He confessed to a training mistake after Rare Chance, a brilliant winner over Payson's Moneymaker on the first night of the John Brandon series, was beaten a head by Gingerman after Taylor scratched him from the middle night sprint.
"I made a blue. I was too light on him in between. I wasn't going to do that again. So I took this horse to Motukarara for a solid workout the weekend after the Flying Stakes. I made sure he went into the Derby ready to race."
Given the perfect trip behind the pacemaker Sir Lincoln, Captain Peacock shot up the passing lane with such a slick pick-up that the result of the $250,000 Christian Cullen New zealand Derby was all over apart from the margins and minor placings. He won by a length and three-quarters from the outsider Franco Jamar who tracked him throughout, and the favourite Russley Rascal had a chequered trip on his way to a luckless third. Winning driver Mark Jones was quick to tell taylor the margin could have been a lot more had the pair been interested in making something of it. It was not a fast Derby - 3:14.1 is unremarkable.
Not all were as fortunate with the voyage as Captain Peacock was. After sitting second early and midfield a lap out, Russley Rascal had more ahead of him than behind at the 800m, the horse buried by the three-wide line. From this difficult situation, he was blocked in the straight, and then finding room wide out, flew past the chasing bunch. Smiling Shard, another well-backed runner, was bottled up in the line behind Kotare Mach and Courage To Rule and pretty much was still caught up in that situation at the finish. The pacemaker Sir Lincoln offered little resistance in the run home. "Had he been right, he should have been in the finish," said driver Maurice McKendry.
Captain Peacock is by Live Or Die, the sire of Taylor's other Group 1 winner Waipawa Lad, and one of Taylor's pet sires. "There's no key to training them really. A lot of my owners don't have the money to buy or breed Christian Cullens, and they can fit in here. And I have always had a close connection with Nevele R. Four wealings have just arrived, and there are more to come."
He has also had a happy association with prominent mid-Canterbury breeders Keith and Bevan Grice, who bred Captain Peacock from Enchanting, a Sands A Flyin mare who had one start for a win against the 3-year-old colts and geldings on the grass at Motukarara. "She was going to go sore, so that's all the racing she did. She was out of Go Anna (who won four), and I tried another Sands A Flyin from her but he was no good."
Captain Peacock arrived as a yearling, and the ownership gradually took shape, with Grant Bull, a Merivale coffee shop proprietor who was a partner in Enchanted, being pivotal in putting the group together. The six-member GAPMAD Syndicate is predominantly from Oamaru, managed by Alistair Strachan, and includes Phil Kennard, a partner in the Welcome Stakes winner, Major Mark.
Taylor was in no hurry with the horse, although there was a time in the Spring when he had no say in the matter. He qualified at two, then cracked a pastern when he returned. "It was not bad, only needed one screw - so three weeks in a box, three weeks in a yard and he was set to go again." As he often does, Taylor takes a working holiday with two or three young horses at the Blenheim meeting in January, and that's where Captain Peacock made his debut. From barrier 10 both days, he returned home an unlucky maiden. "It backfired on us," he said. "But I remember Mark telling me after the first time he drove him - 'when I pulled the ear plugs, I don't know who got the biggest shock, me or the horse'." Captain the won his next four starts, and Kennard asked Taylor if the Derby was an option. His times said it was, and a flashing late run for fifth in the Flying Stakes convinced them.
Taylor enjoys the limelight, as long as it's low key and he can stand at the back. Driving was never his forte, though he was in the cart early enough, starting as a 10-year-old behind a "big Robert Dillon" for his uncle and nextdoor neighbour, Alec Purdon. These were the days of Double Cross, Highland Fortress and Lucrative, and later Master Dean, Game Way, Thurber Command and Master Leon, and the driving was done by Doug Watts and then Michael De Filippi. Taylor played club rugby for Prebbleton and Premiership league as a high-class prop for Hornby, and his clients today are rich in football heritage.
To make ends meet when he started at the breaking-in level, he ran a paper round, and recalled winning his first race with Lumber Scott - also his first starter - in a two mile maiden race at Westport. He has seldom been without a good horse since, with mutual loyalty between himself and Mark Jones being a key factor in the success of them both. More recently, with the sporting interests of his children Hamish and Victoria playing a bigger part in their weeks, Taylor has been through the stable, selling and retiring those in need of it. "It was my choice. It was a quiet time. We didn't have to go anywhere and a lot more younger ones were in the stable."
For Captain Peacock, his campaign will probably continue in Southland where Taylor is thinking of giving him a Supremacy heat, and the Jewels is further ahead. For Taylor, the respect for his horses continues with his owners. "Some, like Alan and Colin Greaves, have had a horse of two with me from the day I started." They are not alone in appreciating the quiet achievements of a modest man.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 14Arr10
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Week after week, Mark Purdon gets to sit behind some serious horseflesh. And for that reason, the uneducated amongst us might think it's 'easy' for him to drive as many winners as he does - and that he doesn't have to bring much to the table himself. But even the harshest armchair critic couldn't help but be impressed by the role Purdon played in winning the $80,000 Stallion Station NZ Welcome Stakes at Addington last Friday night, because it was a display of sheer split-second brilliance.
Purdon was on the hot favourite Major Mark, and after drawing the inside of the second row in the Group 1 feature he could forsee two things happening...firstly that the horse he followed out, Amazing Art, would lead; and secondly, his driver Robbie Holmes would more than likely take a trail behind something soon afterwards, leaving Major Mark three-deep and needing luck. It's what any rival would have done in the same situation, and it is exactly how things went over the early stages - Amazing Art handed up to Night Of The Stars as the field turned into the straight the first time, and Purdon was suddenly in a precarious position, his chances of winning the 1950m left in fate's hands.
Unbeknown to most though, Purdon was actually more concerned about holding his position on the back of Amazing Art. "On two previous occasions when I'd asked him to run early he'd gone rocky. I didn't want us to be any further back," he said. Safely through that hurdle, Purdon had no choice but to sit and play the waiting game as the race unfolded; 400 metres from home, he knew he was in trouble. "Everything else around me was flat," he said. But my fella was still in third gear. even as far back as that I didn't think we'd get a run."
Sticking to 'Plan A' and following Amazing Art into the passing lane, Purdon's one remaining hope was that his talented rival might ease out just enough to allow him and Major Mark through. That he did, inside the final 100 metres, but no sooner had Purdon pushed the accelerator on his Art Major colt in tight quarters when the unthinkable happened - Art Major's sulky wheel jammed inside Amazing Art's. It should have been enough to give the latter a well-constructed victory in the Welcome Stakes, but somehow Purdon managed to drag the horse back, unhook the sulky wheels and then extract one last-ditch lunge to snatch victory right on the line.
In his typically reserved manner, Purdon opted to praise his horse rather than pat himself on the back. "Amazing," he said, adding that he thought the winning post was coming up too soon. "I've never driven one that's been able to pick himself up and dive like that. Even as far as four hundred metres out, if you lock wheels or lose momentum for any reason, normally that's it."
If anything, Major Mark's performance on Friday was an indication that he had turned the corner again and reclaimed his title as the season's top 2-year-old. After all, this is the same horse that trailled in the Sapling Stakes at Ashburton on February 13 yet couldn't get near the eventual winner Terror To Love, finishing nearly three lengths away in third place. "He obviously just wasn't a hundred percent on the day," Purdon said, not being able to put it down to anything else. "One of his owners said to me at the time that he didn't seem to have his usual shine in his coat or that sparkle in his eye. And I see him every day, so I suppose it was a bit harder for me to notice any difference."
"Tonight was his most tradesman-like performance so far though, because he just didn't do a thing wrong out there. Obviously he's one of the best 2-year-olds we've had. There's just an 'X-factor' about him. He's got a brilliant turn of foot, but is also a really great stayer. He's got the all-round game."
Purdon's and Grant Payne's stable has been in sparkling form over the last couple of weeks. On the first night of the Easter Cup Carnival they won races with Russley Rascal, I Can Doosit and Sleepy Tripp, the last Friday they won five more - Addington wins by Major Mark, Emma Hamilton and Pocaro being matched by further victories at Alexandra Park with Lancome and Joyfuljoy.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 14Apr10
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Mark Purdon is enjoying a real purple patch of form with the progeny of former top trotting racemares at the moment. On the first night of the Easter Cup carnival 10 days ago, his and training partner Grant Payne's representative I Can Doosit took out the Group 3 Four-Year-Old Trotters Championship at Addington. I Can Doosit is a son of the seven win mare Sheezadoosie, and last Friday night Purdon took major honours again in another Group 3, the $25,000 Dream With Me Stable/ NZ Trotters Trust NZ Trotting Oaks - this time with Emma Hamilton, a daughter of Miss Whiplash, who won on 13 occasions.
Friday's event was notable also for the fact that hot favourite Shezoneoftheboyz experienced defeat for the first time, breaking and losing all chance after 400 metres as she jostled for a position, and then repeating the misdemeanour swinging for home. Purdon himself had "a couple of hairy moments" early, Emma Hamilton threatening to bobble soon after the mobile was released. "She's not perfect yet," he said. "And I had to hang on to her until she got balanced up; once we'd gone three hundred metres we were alright though."
Drawn the second row Shezoneoftheboyz couldn't be in the picture early but Purdon always expected her to show up at some stage. She never did. "I had a couple of looks, and I could see Davy (Butt, driving Kahdon) but not the other filly. So I knew something must've happened to her. They were the two to beat." Wheeling past the 400m mark, Purdon had Emma Hamilton outside the leader Dixie Commando and poured the pressure on, and afterwards he said the Earl filly felt strong and was "doing it well within herself." At the finish Emma Hamilton had a length and a half to spare over Kahdon, with smaller margins back to Continental Auto and Dixie Commando, the latter doing a sterling job to stick on so well considering she's a maiden that was making her third appearance.
For Emma Hamilton, this was win number three from five starts, and now with just under $26,000 in stake earnings she is guaranteed a start in the Harness Jewels at Cambridge. Raced by Purdon and his wife Vicki together with the filly's breeders Tony and Anne Parker, the same couple that bred and raced Auckland Reactor initially, Emma Hamilton started her career in the North Island. Fifth on debut in January, she put together stylish back-to-back victories at Alexandra Park during February but then wrecked the formline with an early break next time out at Invercargill last month. "She's young and still learning, and it was just one of those occasions where she lost balance after trying to hold her spot early," Purdon said. Given a run against the pacers at the trials after that, specifically to get experience behind the mobile, Emma Hamilton "really impressed" he co-trainer/driver when finishing second to Born Again Cameo.
Her immediate programme from here is in the north again now, and she left yesterday (Tuesday) bound for familiar surrondings at the northern branch of Purdon and Payne's All Star Stables. "Before the Jewels, she'll line up over the Rowe Cup Meeting and then start in the Great Northern Derby," said Purdon, who has no qualms about taking on the 'boys' of the 3-year-old trotting ranks. "Considering what Shezoneoftheboyz and Kahdon have also done so far, the girls look a bit stronger this season. Emma Hamilton is tall and athletic-looking, but she's still not physically strong as yet. And I've always said to Tony (Parker)that if we look after her this year she could furnish into a really nice horse later on. One of her greatest attributes is her attitude; even when things got a bit dicey early on in the Oaks, she tried really hard to stay on her feet."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 14Apr10
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Within a day or two, Stylish Monarch will be on his way to Richard Brosnan's place. Murray Tapper has sent him north with Samantha Ottley, and the next time he sees him will probably be on May 7, the night of the Rowe Cup. "Richard has won more races than I'll ever train," said Tapper. "Depending on what happens, I'll have no need to go up until the day of the race," he said.
Tapper trains New Zealand's best current trotter from Pleasant Point, inland from Timaru and just minutes from where Brosnan became one of New Zealand's training icons. He will be caretaking the new top dog because that is where Stylish Monarch is, following his decisive win over Braig and the rising star I Can Doosit in the $80,000 Gary Thompson/ Fred Shaw NZ Trotting Championship last Friday night.
While Stylish Monarch set his own terms in front after starting from the pole, the best of the opposition thinned itself out - Musgrove galloped early, I Can Doosit lost ground and got well back, and Springbank Richard returned with the offside tyre off it's rim. The school of open class trotters has gradually become alarmingly light and Stylish Monarch is suddenly out of the intermediate grade, in the best and at the top of it.
For one quite so young and yet to leave home, it will be a new experience and he will face a formidable challenge with the arrival at the Rowe Cup carnival of the much-travelled Australian star, Sundon's Gift. Tapper said Stylish Monarch - the winner of 11 of his 23 starts - will have three starts in Auckland.
This rapid rise to the top for Stylish Monarch does not surprise Tapper, who just four years ago left the safety of regular pay at the freezing works to take on the more chancey one of a horse trainer. He was not moving into new ground. His father Peter was training in Gore when he won the 1958 New Brighton Cup with East Dome. The family later moved to Pleasant Point where Peter ran a drapery shop and trained a small team. One of them was Family Fun, who had one start before joining Clem Scott's stable and winning six races.
His son was keen. He drove at the annual gymkhana around the local golf course, and recalled the visits of Manaroa and No Response. Murray was employed in his youth by Eric Ryan, Terry McMillan and David Gaffaney, and recalled that Ryan won 18 races in one season while he was there and Viva Remero was one of the many nice horses he had at the time. His first driving win was with Time Bandit at Waikouaiti, and the first of his eight training wins with the classy trotter Syndication was at Roxburgh. Then Zesty showed up and won five. "It was about then that a number of people asked if I would train a horse for them, so after being at the Works for eighteen years, I left."
In reality the career change was not as good as it looks now. "I had a horror start, for the first couple of seasons. I was going terrible. The horses had a virus, and I was wondering why I had left the Works." But Domination, who has won seven, came to the party and the arrival of Stylish Monarch soon put paid to any lingering thoughts like that. "Right from the start he was a proper professional, and he just has the ringcraft."
Tapper and driver Ricky May - who won four races on the night - were a little concerned how he would perform from one off the mobile, so for a lap of the prelim May sat him on the gate. Braig tried hard up the passing lane and for a moment, near the eighty metres, gave the look of one about to succeed. But Stylish Monarch was pulling away at the finish.
Former stablemate Duplication, now in Canada, was a good sale out of the stable, and younger ones showing promise are a 2-year-old brother to Jasmyn's Gift and a Monarchy close relation to Stylish Monarch.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 14Apr10
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