 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2006
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Report For Duty is too strong for Tuherbs & Power Of Tara |
Report For Duty made such a swift beginning from his 10m handicap that he was looming up outside the leader Tuherbs within a furlong, but trainer/driver Pat O'Reilly wasn't stopping there. He continued to push on with purpose, eventually crossing to the marker pegs passing the 1900m point.
All of a sudden, O'Reilly's pre-race plan had fallen into place - even earlier than anticipated..."I wanted to run the last mile as quick as we could," he said. "It didn't matter whether he got left parked or what, I was going at the mile. And I wasn't going to hand up to anybody." O'Reilly's tactics stemmed from knowing his pacer is such a great stayer, and faith that if he put the son of Washington VC up on the pace, he wouldn't quit on him. As it was he was left a sitting duck to a horse like Tuherbs poised in behind, but in the end his nearest rival just couldn't get past him.
You can put this down to two things - Report For Duty's scorching final sectionals of 27.8 and 28.9, generated from a horse who has an incredible will to win. O'Reilly did little more than give his pacer small taps with the right rein and whip down the straight, and if anything he was pulling away from them again at the post.
Report For Duty has now made seven appearances for six wins and a second, his only 'glitch' eventuating at Motukarara back in March when he was "knocked down" at the top of the straight before picking himself up to run Lladro to a length. There's over $53,000 in the bin for owner Jock Austin now too - not a bad effort for a horse that never got a bid when he went through the Sale ring, eventually changing hands a month later for $6000. Austin spends his days on Koh Samui, a small island near Taiwan where O'Reilly says he "doesn't do much" after making a successful living out of land development. "I have known him for 25 years, ever since I grazed sheep for him. He was a sheep-truck driver back then, and a real hard case; he worked hard too though. Jock's a great owner, but above all he is a great loser. He never gripes about anything, even if things go wrong," O'Reilly said.
The partnership's been a very lucrative one over the years, but there's every possibility that their latest winner will rise to levels not reached before. And who knows...12 months down the track, Austin might just have to make a trip backto NZ to see his horse line up in the biggest event of them all, because O'Reilly feels he has got a Cup horse on his hands.
"Maybe even two," he enthused, referring to Shea Stadium as well. "He has gone huge tonight, sitting outside Pay Me Christian during the twenty-seven quarter down the back and coming again to run third. They're both as dumb as each other. And Report For Duty' got a lot of growing up to do yet - I reckon he'll be better still in another year."
O'Reilly's two pacing stars are going to slip out of the limelight and have a quiet couple of weeks until Cup time now, and he's already got another target in mind for his latest winner. "I wouldn't mind sending him to Auckland later on," he said. "Just for the Messengerthough, not the mile. He does work better that way around at home."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 11Oct06