 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2011
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Steven Reid has never thought of himself as superstitious. But when it comes to his horse Gold Ace, all the signs suggest he's wrong.
Take an occasion back in early February for example. reid was across the Tasman compaigning Gold Ace in the Victorian Derby Series at Melton's Tabcorp Park. On the day of the Final, he and his wife Wendy entered one of the malls in Melbourne looking for a spot to stop for lunch when all of a sudden they came across a big, bold billboard advertising the 'Sushi Sushi' chain of food outlets. Reid says it stood out like a beacon, and right then and there he got the premonition that a horse with the same name would triumph that night. His hunch came true.
Fast forward to last Saturday, and Reid awoke from an early afternoon snooze on the couch of his Addington motel to hear the last few seconds of a galloping event at Riverton beaming from the television. "...and Hill Of Gold is going to run away and score..." went the dulcet tones of commentator Dave McDonald. 'Hey', he thought at the time, 'that's the same name as the mother of our bloke - that has to be an omen for tonight'. Not wanting to tempt fate before the race, Reid only told a select few about what he hoped would be an uncanny coincidence.
As the field for the $200,000 Southern Demolition & Salvage NZ Derby took their positions behind the mobile, Reid glanced across the track at the semaphore board to see Gold Ace had closed at $5.80 on the tote. Knowing that the Bettor's Delight colt was over a respiratory infection that caused him to run a below-par sixth in Sushi Sushi's Victorian Derby Final - the same health scare that saw him also struggle into sixth a month later in the Northern Derby Prelude once back home, forcing his withdrawal from the Alexandra Park Final - the Pukekohe trainer regretted not opening his wallet, if only for a split second.
"I was very confident," he said. "But I only said it privately to a couple of people. I've never backed him yet, not once - not even when he won at Cambridge and paid thirteens. So I didn't want to start changing things now." Superstition or not, Reid got the result he longed for when Gold Ace won his home stretch battle with the favourite Terror To Love and edged clear near the line. The latter had gotten to the lead early from a similar second-row draw, while Gold Ace and driver Peter Ferguson dodged trouble at the start and joined the three-wide train starting the last lap, ranging up outside him before the 800m pole.
"The first part of the race definitely panned out well for us," Reid said, referring to the early gallop of Empyrean which checked Major Mark and saw the Purdon/Payne runner stuck wide without cover for the last half. Had that not happened, it definitely would've been a three-way slog up the home straight."
Prior to this season, Reid had never trained the winner of a 3YO Sires' Stakes Final or NZ Deby; now Gold Ace has given him both. "I've run second in the race twice," he said, remembering Monkey King's nose defeat to Pay Me Christian in 2006 and Bailey's Dream going under by a length to Badlands Bute a year earlier. What makes it more special is having my wife and our kids Matthew (18) and Isabella (13) here tonight, because they haven't all been down since I ran second with Monkey in the NZ Cup. But just having this horse right again is a big buzz as well. When we arrived tonight h was pushing Simon (McMullan) all over the place and half-pie trying to take off, yet when we put him in his stall he went to sleep."
Following the $40,000 Group 2 Flying Stakes and the Harness Jewels Emerald in early June, Reid says he'll more than likely take Gold Ace across the Tasman for the Breeders' Crown and then give him a "massive break" - leaving his 4-year-old resumption as late as 2012. "This horse's improvement between two and three has been immense. At two he was a notch below the good ones but at three he's lifted to what is possibly the best. Don't get me wrong, I think Terror To Love is a great horse - and because the two remaining races they'll meet in are sprints, it's going to come down to the draws. If Terror To Love draws well and we don't, we probably can't beat him. And Vice Versa if it's the other way round. What would make it interesting is if we both draw bad."
Another hunch? Only time will tell...
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 28Apr2011