 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2003
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
 |
| Take A Moment ...easily |
Tim Butt hoped that history wouldn't repeat itself at Addington on Show Day.
The West Melton trainer has totally dominated the top trotting events in recent years, thanks to the deeds of firstly Lyell Creek and now Take A Moment, but last week was one occasion when he wished for a different result. Because it was on this day three years ago that the unthinkable happened...Lyell Creek got beaten. Shooting for his 21st consecutive victory at the time, Lyell Creek drew 'the ace' in the Trotting Free-For-All, was crossed at the start, and spent the entire 2600 metres of the event looking anything but comfortable as he chewed steel and wanted to run faster. When finally getting space in the home straight he took too long to wind up, crossing the line in second place and later being relegated to third for breaking short of the post.
Not that Butt wanted to look for them, but there were some ominous signs leading into this year's $50,000 Nuggets Bar & Casino NZ Trotting Free-For-All also...Take A Monent drew the same marble, he is not known for possessing blinding gate speed, and he too was looking to add another 'post' to his picket-fence formline.
And after the mobile pulled away the deja vu continued, with Take A Moment getting beaten to the lead by firstly Frugal Echo and then Superstaragogo, but that is where any similarities to Lyell Creek's performance of three years earlier started and finished. His pilot Anthony Butt was well prepared, and had the champ off the fence before a furlong had passed, tagging onto the back of Young Pointer and then pressing forward to lead starting the last mile.
From there the opposition were never going to beat Take A Moment, and he jogged home to win by five lengths and take his winning streak to 16. "We tried something a bit different today," said the Armbro Invasion gelding's trainer afterwards. "We put the pull-up half blinds on him, to see if it would help him develop a bit of gate speed. We have used them before, off and on, and in Aussie quite a bit. But we might not be able to use them again because the stipes were telling me after the race that they are too hard to police. Butt said that he couldn't ask for much more than his trotter showed last week, and he is very happy leading into the Dominion Handicap when Take A Moment will be trying to win the coveted event for the third consecutive time.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 19Nov03