 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2005
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Tuherbs is too strong for Pay Me Christian |
Tuherbs was bred by Roydon Lodge Stud, and the Live Or Die-Futurist gelding did all his early education under the guidance of part-owner/trainer Dave Anderson, but on Friday he made his debutin the colours of Tim Butt after being bought by McDonald and his good mate Eddie Griffin a little over a month ago. "We have people looking around for horses for us all the time, and it was actually Mark Jones that spotted Tuherbs at the trials one day," Butt said. "We trialled him once, at Dave's, and knew he had a six-figure price tag - but that is the going rate for a good, young horse these days."
In between times Butt had put the proposition to McDonald, who had raced the likes of Show Cruiser and Life Goes Bye from the stable in the past. "Tim mentioned that the asking price was fairly high, but I left it to his judgement to decide whether he was worth it or not," McDonald said. "He believed Tuherbs was, so then I rang Eddie and he nearly fainted, but he said he would get the money together somehow."
In business and as friends McDonald and Griffin go back a long way, 30 years in fact. Originally they were partners in the Acme Metal & Drum Company, McDonald managing the Christchurch branch and Griffin overseeing the Dunedin one. The picture changed about seven years ago when McDonald amalgamated with McIvor Metals to form Resource Recycling Ltd and Griffin went out on his own, but they have remained great mates and continued to race the odd horse together. One of those was In The Way, who ran second to Giovanetto in the 1991 Welcome Stakes, so Tuherbs did his bit to settle the score by going one better last Friday night.
He had to be good to do it too, because apart from a second-row draw over the 1950 metre sprint trip he had the red hot favourite Pay Me Christian standing in his way as well. Tuherbs and driver Anthony Butt tracked Pay Me Christian with every stride, settling behind him after the start and then following him three-wide and into the race over the last lap. Gaps appeared between the pair when Pay Me Christian took off at the 600 metre mark just as Tuherbs got humped four-wide, but once around the final bend he was soon idling in behind his main rival once again and waiting to pounce. Butt went to pass at the furlong, but then had to suddenly grab hold of Tuherbs and steer him wider when Pay Me Christian baulked for the second time and went sideways. Unfazed by the loss of momentum, Tuherbs straightened, gathered himself and zoomed on past the favourite, winning virtually untouched by one and a half lengths in a 1:58 mile rate.
"He is a lovely horse," Tim enthused afterwards. "He has got a great temperament, and settled in right from day one after we got him; Dave deserves a lot of credit for what the horse did tonight. "And the thing about Tuherbs is that he probably doesn't really know what he is doing yet. We will target a Sires' Stakes Heat with him in a fortnight, hopefully the Final after that, and then that will be it for the season."
For McDonald, winning the Welcome Stakes was one of his most enjoyable moments in the 40 years he has owned and raced horses. His involvement has never been more in-depth than it is right now either, because he is breeding from seven mares and the total head count across the board is well into the 30s. The latest to join the list is the dam of Tuherbs, Fitch II mare Futurist, who he bought for "a steal" when outlaying $6500 for her at the Roydon Lodge Sale earlier the same day. She is in foal to Julius Caesar, and after such an emphatic debut performance by Tuherbs she too looks like a punt that is going to pay off.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 13Apr05