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RACING HISTORY

 

YEAR: 2009

FEATURE RACE COMMENT

2009 CRT McMILLANS EQUINE FEEDS NZ TROTTING STAKES

At home, Alan and Fiona Clark have a boxed set of Harness Jewels colours with Castletonian's name on them. They are a memento of the trotters deeds last season, when Castletonian was the leading 2-year-old stake-earner by the time he raced for a Harness Ruby at Cambridge, and they are just a special as the Sires' Stakes trophy he won to put him on top of the list.

Later this year the couple have to clear some more space, as a set belonging to stablemate The Fiery Ginga will be following suit; the latter put things beyond doubt in this respect with another faultless display to win last Friday's Group 3 NZ Trotting Stakes at Addington. It was the seventh victory in a row for The Fiery Ginga, and it was achieved with a 'take no prisoners' attitude when Alan let him run hard out of the gate. "I thought Kowhai Ford was our main danger in the race, and I wanted to put some pressure on him early," Clark said of his rival, who had gotten to the lead first after drawing closer in. "The Fiery Ginga can really pour it on around the bends, whereas at this stage a lot of other 2-year-olds can't."

Confident in his own trotter being foolproof, Clark had wrested the lead with The Fiery Ginga soon afterwards, at which stage Kowhai Ford rolled into a gallop that went close to costing him third in the Stipes' room later on. In fact, stewards were kept pretty busy scribbling down names early on, as eight of The Fiery Ginga's 12 rivals in the event either broke in the score-up, at the release or in the first 400 metres.

Clear and cruising throughout, none of them were ever going to get near the $2.50 favourite. "That might put some of the 'knockers' back in their place," Clark said, referring to a couple of outside opinions that "the wheels had to fall off sometime" because The Fiery Ginga had been 'up' since August and qualified a month later. "People don't think that 2-year-olds can race right through the season, but they can - you have just got to get their shoeing and conditioning right. And I know this fella took nine starts before he won one, but all of his earlier races were about sorting him out, and him learning to be a racehorse."

It's hard to condemn a horse that, since clearing maidens, has now won seven in a row. And if anything The Fiery Ginga looks to be getting better rather than going backwards, which is what Clark expected all along. "I always knew he would," the Mosgiel horseman said. "I remember thinking a wee while ago that if there was a better 2-year-old out there, he'd have to be phenomenal. The Fiery Ginga's got tremendous stamina, and he will keed stepping up time and time again. He is a very light horse at the moment, but once he strengthens up as a 3-year-old he'll be able to carry his speed even further. He's a super horse to train; he's like a lamb to work with, and he'll always come back for more."

Next on the plate for the son of CR Commando is this Saturday's Sires' Stakes Trotters Championship, the race that Castletonian won last year, and Clark believs The Fiery Ginga "could be slightly better" for it than he was last Friday night. Following that, he might even line his three 2-year-olds up at Phar Lap Raceway 24 hours later - "on the way home" - something he knows is likely to also raise a few eyebrows.

"He'll handle it easy," Clark said. "Horses train harder than they race. Like the other night...he only sprinted for four hundred metres at the start, and again for four hundred metres at the finish. I do a lot of interval training at home. It pushes the horses to very high speeds, but it doesn't tax their bodies or cause them to get fatigued. A lot of people can't believe it, but I've already got three yearlings at home that can all run miles in 2.10 or 2.12; they'll all qualify in August. I like a challenge, and like to do things that other people perhaps haven't done."

Safely through Saturday and Sunday, The Fiery Ginga will set course for Ashburton and the Jewels, where with his gate-speed and faultless ringcraft he'll be a torrent to try and head off. "Not that I'll be going out there to set records, he is there to win - not go a time. But I think he's a 1:57 horse," Clark said.

Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 6May09



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