 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2006
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Galleon's Assassin parades after the win |
The Earl gelding will back up this week for the $50,000 PGG Yearling Sales event, where his task will be appreciably easier with neither Brite Speed or Houdini Star eligible, and then head to Auckland for the $50,000 Sires' Stakes Championship on April 28, along with a couple of other races,before returning home for a freshen-up. He will then be set for the Breeders' Crown in August, following the same schedule and path which brought success in the $114,180 2-year-old Trot last year.
Ironically, Galleon's Assassin won the Breeders' Crown on the eve of trainer Mark Purdon spending a period on the sidelines, and he marked his first Group 1 race success since returning to the fray in January. He was also the middle leg of a winning treble for Purdon on the Premier Night, while top 2-year-old filly Top Tempo is unbeaten in three features including the Group 2 Nevele R Stakes, but the form of Jays Debut in recent weeks remains a mystery for him.
Raced by Purdon's wife Vicki and Aucklander Fred Tong, a long-time family friend, Galleon's Assassin was sorted out by Purdon from the 2004 Remier Sale and purchased for $33,000. "I hadn't had a trotter for a while and neither had Freddy, so we agreed to go halves in one and he was the one I liked the most." said Purdon. "He had a good head and eye, and a good barrel," he added. Tong, 50, raced a good trotter in the 70s in Butch Cassidy, but since has "just had the odd one or two-win horse".
Galleon's Assassin is the fifth foal and fifth winner from the Chiola Hanover mare Rob The Nest (6 wins), a grand-daughter of Robyn Evander, whose first two foals were the brilliant but ill-fated Sonofthedon and Group 1 winner Thedonsson, and since the mares Charlotte Galleon and Whosinthenest. Rob The Nest has since Galleon's Assassin, left fillies by S J's Photo and Sundon and a colt by Armbro Invasion, and is back in foal to Earl.
Galleon's Assassin's experience and class stood to him in his latest feature race success. Four Carat took up the early running, but Galleon's Assassin soon crossed him from barrier eight, as main danger Houdini Star missed the call-up and spotted the field 30 to 40 metres before they had begun. Houdini Star circled the field to join the pacemaker a lap out and give Brite Speed the one-one, but Galleon's Assassin had them both covered a good way from home. "I didn't know Houdini Star had made a mistake, but I did know I had him covered at the quarter and I was just waiting for Brite Speed to come." Brite Speed was struggling to keep up well before the quarter however, and came in a disappointing eighth. Fout Carat followed the winner around for second ahead of the Paul Nairn-trained fillies Paramount Gem and Insist, who likewise never left the fence from three and four-back until the run home.
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 5Apr06