 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2003
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Meredith Wilson presents the trophy to Bruce Greenhalgh |
Using his relentless, grinding power, Take A Moment became the first horse to win three successive Dominion Handicaps. He won the Southern Trust sponsored edition with ease from the vastly under-rated Last Link, and the hugely inexperienced Allegro Agitato who was racing in this grade for the first time.
In this win, his 17th in succession, he set an entires and geldings record for trotters over 3200m of 4:05.5, which was .2sec inside that held by Call Me Now. He also topped $1 million in stakes, joining his stablemate Lyell Creek in that league.
The great horse is raced by the Long Drive Syndicate, managed by Bruce Greenhalgh who said at the presentation: "We are so proud of him. He is a fantastic horse to watch. We love to hear a good horse clapped back to the enclosure. To crack a million is an absolute miracle, and so is Tim's feat to train five Dominion winners in a row and Anthony to drive them. To be honest, Tim could win the race again next year."
While Anthony had a night to remember, with three successive wins, Tim Butt's carnival did not spark until the final night and it needed Take A Moment to save it. The first casualty was the promising young trotter Genius, who missed the meeting with a deep-seated stone bruise and won't race again until the autumn. Lyell Creek's resumption was put on hold while he continued to adjust to southern hemispgere conditions, and Pocket Me was retired after almost pulling off the Junior Free-For-All on Cup Day. "He was fine until a week before the race, then got a bit sore when the pressure went on," said Tim. Then Thedonsson had a minor problem and failed to get a start last week after two unplaced runs over Cup Week.
He was in safe hands relying on Take A Moment to carry
the flag - a bit like England depending on Jonny Wilkinson to kick them out of a tight spot. It never got to that. Once Take A Moment began well and slid through the field to sit for a time in the middle of the pack, the signs were always ominous. Anthony got him cracking and into the lead after passing the 1600m, and he didn't see much of the others from then on. Tim says Take A Moment has never had a sick day, and even now is stronger than he was last season. "I always thought that would happen. With that French blood, it is a late developing breed," he said.
Soon, they will be on the road again. On December 1, Butt will fly to Australia with Take A Moment, new stablemate Mister D G, Strange Town and All Talk. Mister D G will race in the Cranbourne Cup on December 8. He will be a force to reckon with, even in the best company, going by his outstanding run to worry Young Rufus out of first in the main free-for-all last Friday night. After racing at Auckland over Christmas, Take A Moment will head to Europe for a race in Germany in mid-April, Naples on May 2, then the Elitlopp. All up, Take A Moment will be away for three and a half months. Butt thinks the ability to acclimatise is crucial, and with that in mind he is booked to leave for his Italian base in early March. "The good thing with Take A Moment is that he doesn't need the work that Lyell needed. He can miss a couple of days without it affecting him - a couple of runs and he's back to where he was," he said. "The syndicate got together over lunch on Saturday to go over it all. They're looking forward to what should be a trip of a lifetime," he said.
The smooth highway of success for Take A Moment and the retirement of Sundowner Bay made Butt recall a game of golf he played some years ago, when the talk turned to buying a horse for the Inter-Dominions. Lyell Creek was only C2 at the time, so we tried to buy Sundowner Bay but they weren't interested," he said. Much later, they bought a son of Armbro Invasion who packed a long drive and sunk huge putts.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in NZHR Weekly