 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2013
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
2013 SEELITE WINDOWS & DOORS NZ TROTTING DERBY
Just when it seemed Habibti could take her level of performance no higher, she does. There was no other conclusion at the end of the fascinating finish to the Seelite Windows and Doors NZ Trotting Derby at Addington last Friday night.
After looking only good for third at the top of the straight, when Blitzthemcalder and Royal Aspirations had put two lengths on her, she gamely clung to them, and then started to close in. Blitzthemcalder, a handsome back horse with a reputation to match, did enough to keep a narrow margin on Royal Aspirations, but Habibti was a different kettle of fish. On she came, slowly at first but chasing hard and then deceptively quickly to beat the pair by two necks in a gruelling last 100 metres.
How good are these young trotters? Not only did Habibti break the 2600m mobile record for her age by running 3:13.5, which eclipsed the 3:17.7 set by Shezoneoftheboyz, but it was also inside the allcomers mark of 3:15.1 held by Jasmyn's Gift and faster than Christen Me took to win the Superstars.
"She was pretty tired at the end," said her driver and co-trainer Davey Butt. "Turning in I didn't think I was a show of winning, but half-way down I knew she would. She felt good out of the gate and she's done the job at both ends. You don't get many who can do that, and she's got a lot more speed now," he said.
Habibti, a chestnut by Love You, gave Butt extra pleasure because he is a part-owner with Robert 'Bolty' Paterson and Lynne Paterson. "I've never owned one that good. She's had this tie-up problem, but she seems good at the moment," he said. Habibti now continues her campaign at the Auckland Rowe Cup meeting which starts on Friday week.
Among those to congratulate Butt was his cousin Paul Nairn, a superb trainer of trotters, who said he was breaking in Habibti's yearling sister, a taller type. Meahwhile Chris Alford, was left wondering how success eluded Blitzthemcalder. "What did I do wrong?" said the Aussie ace.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 10Apr2013