 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2010
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Week after week, Mark Purdon gets to sit behind some serious horseflesh. And for that reason, the uneducated amongst us might think it's 'easy' for him to drive as many winners as he does - and that he doesn't have to bring much to the table himself. But even the harshest armchair critic couldn't help but be impressed by the role Purdon played in winning the $80,000 Stallion Station NZ Welcome Stakes at Addington last Friday night, because it was a display of sheer split-second brilliance.
Purdon was on the hot favourite Major Mark, and after drawing the inside of the second row in the Group 1 feature he could forsee two things happening...firstly that the horse he followed out, Amazing Art, would lead; and secondly, his driver Robbie Holmes would more than likely take a trail behind something soon afterwards, leaving Major Mark three-deep and needing luck. It's what any rival would have done in the same situation, and it is exactly how things went over the early stages - Amazing Art handed up to Night Of The Stars as the field turned into the straight the first time, and Purdon was suddenly in a precarious position, his chances of winning the 1950m left in fate's hands.
Unbeknown to most though, Purdon was actually more concerned about holding his position on the back of Amazing Art. "On two previous occasions when I'd asked him to run early he'd gone rocky. I didn't want us to be any further back," he said. Safely through that hurdle, Purdon had no choice but to sit and play the waiting game as the race unfolded; 400 metres from home, he knew he was in trouble. "Everything else around me was flat," he said. But my fella was still in third gear. even as far back as that I didn't think we'd get a run."
Sticking to 'Plan A' and following Amazing Art into the passing lane, Purdon's one remaining hope was that his talented rival might ease out just enough to allow him and Major Mark through. That he did, inside the final 100 metres, but no sooner had Purdon pushed the accelerator on his Art Major colt in tight quarters when the unthinkable happened - Art Major's sulky wheel jammed inside Amazing Art's. It should have been enough to give the latter a well-constructed victory in the Welcome Stakes, but somehow Purdon managed to drag the horse back, unhook the sulky wheels and then extract one last-ditch lunge to snatch victory right on the line.
In his typically reserved manner, Purdon opted to praise his horse rather than pat himself on the back. "Amazing," he said, adding that he thought the winning post was coming up too soon. "I've never driven one that's been able to pick himself up and dive like that. Even as far as four hundred metres out, if you lock wheels or lose momentum for any reason, normally that's it."
If anything, Major Mark's performance on Friday was an indication that he had turned the corner again and reclaimed his title as the season's top 2-year-old. After all, this is the same horse that trailled in the Sapling Stakes at Ashburton on February 13 yet couldn't get near the eventual winner Terror To Love, finishing nearly three lengths away in third place. "He obviously just wasn't a hundred percent on the day," Purdon said, not being able to put it down to anything else. "One of his owners said to me at the time that he didn't seem to have his usual shine in his coat or that sparkle in his eye. And I see him every day, so I suppose it was a bit harder for me to notice any difference."
"Tonight was his most tradesman-like performance so far though, because he just didn't do a thing wrong out there. Obviously he's one of the best 2-year-olds we've had. There's just an 'X-factor' about him. He's got a brilliant turn of foot, but is also a really great stayer. He's got the all-round game."
Purdon's and Grant Payne's stable has been in sparkling form over the last couple of weeks. On the first night of the Easter Cup Carnival they won races with Russley Rascal, I Can Doosit and Sleepy Tripp, the last Friday they won five more - Addington wins by Major Mark, Emma Hamilton and Pocaro being matched by further victories at Alexandra Park with Lancome and Joyfuljoy.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 14Apr10