 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1990
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| The connections of Winning Blue Chip |
After sitting alone at the back, unfancied Winning Blue Chip came through to win the $175,000 John Brandon 30 New Zealand Derby.
The chunky bay gelding picked off seven tiring rivals to cause the biggest Derby upset since Naval Officer won the classic in 1984 when only five finished. That was the second surprise. The first was the sinking of Honkin Vision, the raging favourite who was beaten, and badly beaten, with less than 200 metres to run. And the third surprise was the remarkable achievement of Winning Blue Chip to demolish Inky Lord's New Zealand age group record of 3:15.1 by pounding out 3:12.2 for a mobile 2600m.
It was a muted audience who saw the scene unfold, because Winning Blue Chip rated in none of the pre-race forecasts and in the Brandon preludes had done nothing to suggest he was in the same league as the favourites. Driver Anthony Butt said: "I always thought he was a bit below the best of them. The only show I had was if they went hard all the way. I knew I had to take all the short cuts. He was not good enough to go around them."
Henry Skinner took Honkin Vision to the front, as the draw said he would. Sweating freely in the warmer conditions, Honkin Vision made play at better than a 2:00 clip, making the pace hard on the others and harder on himself. Said Skinner: "I was starting to get pretty busy at the quarter." No wonder. The horse had cut out his 2400 metres in 2:57.9 and was starting to hang his head. The Unicorn took him easily. He soon came to the end of it, allowing Winning Blue Chip to pick him off 50 metres out and race clear to win by three-quarters of a length.
The winner is trained by Barrie Lilley, who is not a household name in New Zealand harness racing circles. Formerly a freezing worker, Lilley, aged 46, took out a professional trainer's licence two years ago on the death of his father. One of those he started training was a colt by second season sire Bo Scots Blue Chip from Winning Maid, a winning Willie Win mare formerly trained by Murray Rennie.
Bred by Doody Townley and FA and Mrs JM Stakes of Ashburton, Winning Maid was from Locksley Maid, by Young Charles from Jonell, by Garrison Hanover from Mighty Imp, by Dillon Hall. Winning Maid was raced by Bill Parlane and twin brothers Graeme and Gary Chandler, who bred her to Noodlum after winning one race. She produced Mighty Adios to this mating, returned to win another race, then went to Nevele R Stud to produce her classic winner. She is also the dam of a Nero's B B filly and this season was served by Paulsboro.
On times, Winning Blue Chip was no faint hope. He had recorded a best time of 3:17.5 for the distance, and only Seafield Inca had gone quicker. "But although we didn't expect anything like this, his blood has been out for the last couple of weeks and credit must go to the Halswell Clinic vets for the work they have done getting him right," said Parlane. "He just did not fire on the first two nights like I knew he could."
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HR Weekly