 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2000
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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WOW! That is one way to describe Lyell Creek's Ordeal Trotting Cup win. Here is another...four and three wide early before changing down a gear to take the lead after 600 metres, sped along, coasted clear.
What Lyell Creek did when resuming on friday night left everyone shaking their heads in disbelief. On a cold night he went head-first into a stiff easterly three times, yet he still managed to trot his 2600m mobile event in 3:16.5 - and threw in a final 800 metre split of 27.5 for good measure. But wait, there is more...he absolutely jogged it!
All this just goes to show that Lyell Creek has returned as good as, if not better than, last season, and it is no wonder trainer Tim Butt found it hard to hold back a smile after the event. "You always know what he is capable of," Butt said, realising the enormity of Lyell Creek's performance at this early stage of the season. "He is the sort of horse that no matter what he does, it doesn't surprise you. And he has trotted so much sweeter tonight, that was the most pleasing part for me. We put new shoes on him in front, just a bit of fine-tuning, and they are a little bit lighter and a bit squarer in the toe. In the past he has always trotted best when his shoes were almost worn out," he said.
Despite drawing wide last Friday, Butt and his brother Anthony had a pre-race plan to press forward. "With Europe and America in mind, we are conscious of him not losing any ground at the start of a mobile race. At this stage we don't want him to become a gate hummer either though, he will end up chasing it all the time otherwise. Just seeing the way he came through his event tonight stands him in good stead for Sweden too, because he will have to race twice in a day over there. He looks like he could go out there and do it again."
Last year, Lyell Creek's connections tackled some minor races along the way but their main focus was on the bigger picture... firstly the Dominion Handicap; mainly the Inter-Dominion Final, and lastly the Rowe Cup. Some of his races were lead-up events to the main goals, so even though he won them, in a way we would not have been worried if he didn't," Butt said. "Like that Cup Day run when he beat One Kenny...that brought him on another ten to twenty percent for the Dominion Handicap and the next time we worked him he was just a different horse.
"And then there was the Dullard Cup. That was still a month away from the Inter-Dominion Final so he was not much more than about eighty percent fit. That night he was four and three-wide before sitting parked, he dished it up to Special Force, skipped clear on the turn and held on, breaking the track record by two seconds. Some people said that he fell in to win, but in the context of what stage his preparation was at it was a huge run," Butt said.
This season things are only slightly different; 'Team Lyell Creek' are still concentrating on the bigger picture, but they are pretty keen on keeping the trotter's winning streak in tact too. After last Friday, this now stands at 17.
During the week leading up to Lyell Creek's resumption, Anthony Butt purchased a quarter share in the gelding off owner Graham Bruton. "We had talked about this fo 12 months," Bruton said. "I offered Ants a share in Lyell Creek because I thought if he was going to be spending all that time with the horse overseas he may as well be bringing in a bit more than his five percent as a driver."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 20Sep00