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RACING HISTORY

FEATURE RACE COMMENT

Out in front & lonely...Western Dream

Quite simply, Western Dream's 13 rivals were just not in the same league as her. With the exception of Tosti Girl, few have even come close at any stage of the season, and in the absence of her greatest rival Western Dream once again reminded us about how got she really is with a crushing victory in the $100,000 Group 1 Wayne Francis Memorial NZ Oaks.

Starting from the outside of the second row, Western Dream gave them all a start, looped the field, sat parked, and ran away to win by an ever-increasing five and a half lengths. It was a far more dominant display than the Badlands Hanover filly's Nevele R Series Final win a week earlier, which trainer/ driver Tony Herlihy got an inkling about from the moment he started to warm her up. "Even in the prelim she felt like she had improved from the week before," Herlihy said. "Mark (Purdon) had said she had been jumping out of her skin at his place, and like all good athletes she had really tightened up."

Western Dream headed home with Herlihy after her victory, as there are more goals in store for the remainder of the season yet. "We are going to go across for the Victorian Oaks and the Breeders' Crown," he continued. "It has been the plan right along to just take it from race to race, but she seems to have come through her trip south really great so we may as well go when you are racing for that sort of money."

Money isn't something that Western Dream has ever had any difficulty earning, because after Friday's victory she has now won 13 and tallied a whopping $325,480 in stakes for her breeder/owners Vin and Daphne Devery. Like the programming decisions that concern the filly, Herlihy and the Deverys have also shared the training duties throughout Western Dream's career as well, Devery having his name alongside hers in the racebook five times and Herlihy the other 12.

Their association goes back many years, and one of the first horses Herlihy ever drove for the couple was Western Dream's dam Dreamy Atom, steering her to victory in the last of her six wins, the 1994/95 NZ Sires' Stakes Fillies Championship. "I am just really grateful that Vin and Daph decided to place her with me," Herlihy said, humbly. "It's great to have horses like her in the stable, and when they kick on from the ability they showed as a young horse like she has." So is Western Dream anything like her mother? "No, not really," Herlihy answered. "Dreamy Atom was a smaller, stockier mare, whereas Western Dream is not. She was actually quite rangy as a 2-year-old, but she has strengthened up now though."

Following her sojourn across the Tasman, Western Dream will be spelled and return sometime around Christmas. Like every year when there is a standout 3-year-old filly, it will then be a question of how well she will come back the following season. "She is the type that will stay as good," Herlihy said. "Sometimes you know if good youngsters aren't going to get much better, but she has always had the scope to suggest that she will improve a lot. And I have always thought she has got a lot of stamina. I know the overall time the other night wasn't flash, but I think her effort proves that to a degree."


Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 24May06