 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2013
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
2013 GARRARDS HORSE & HOUND NZ PREMIER MARES CHAMPIONSHIP
Super mare Bettor Cover Lover had little more than a training run to win last Friday night's $40,000 Gr2 Premier Mares Championship at Addington. From barrier three, outside of a trademark lead-trail early spurt from Dexter Dunn with Donegal Delight, Brent Mangos was able to dictate a slow tempo and sprint home to comfortably hold the trailer with the rest in a race for third. Pemberton Shard came out of the one-one to win that race when they were all flat making any ground at all in the run home.
With the final sectionals flying by in 56.2 and 27.4, Bettor Cover Lover only had to record a 1:59.1 mile rate, when she is quite capable of breaking 1:55. "That was ideal after not having had a run for over a month," said Mangos. "We didn't have to go too hard and that should improve her nicely and have her spot on for the Breeders Stakes," he added.
The race was effectively over, if it wasn't already when the draws came out, when Dunn's early initiative meant Mangos could put Pembrook's Delight three back. "I could have held the lead at the start, but when Dexter came out, I let him go knowing the other mare would then be three fence." This was Bettor Cover Lover's fourth win in four races this season and her 17th in 27 lifetime starts for stakes worth $864,000. The big, strong Bettor's Delight 5-year-old has won five Group 1 races along with two Listed Sales races.
Bettor Cover Lover is staying with David and Catherine Butt at the Woodend Beach, but "She doesn't need to be at the beach. She trains on the track, but it's good to have the beach there if we need a freshen up." But Bettor Cover Lover is quite clearly right at the top of her game at the moment. "There were times last year when I thought 'we're a bit better than this, although she never went a bad race'. When she came back from the injury, she had some hard races against Carabella and a couple of trips to Oz and I think she was looking for a spell towards the end. She had seven weeks out and she seems better and stronger this time in."
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 23Jan2013