 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2004
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Sundon's Luck's connections with the Ordeal Cup |
Anyone thinking about life in the city only needs to talk to Kevin Townley. He is likely to champion the merits of a town and country lifestyle. Now confortably settled in suburban Christchurch, Townley travels each day to Ohoka - a 30 minute trip - where he has a team of eight. He formerly trained at Weedons, but is using the training property of Wayne Ross, who is also working the same number.
Townley has a racing team of one - Sundon's Luck - but six of the others are young trotters, and three of them will soon be tested to see if they have classic potential. It's a track Townley has been down many times before, and Sundon's Luck has been and done it. Now six, Sundon's Luck has been out of sorts since a stella season at three, when he won six races including two Group 1s and a Group 2, and his win in the Anthony Shearer/ Pink Batts Ordeal Trotting Cup at Addington last week indicated the change might be suiting him, too.
"He hasn't trotted like that since he was three," said Townley. "He could be getting back to that form; I'm hoping so," he said, after the gelding stole up inside hot favourite Sonofthedon and worried the win out of him. Lyell Creek carried his 11 years lightly, and was a gallant third, hinting at rich improvement to come.
Townley has not exactly had it easy training Sundon's Luck, after "he packed up racing at Auckland". When he returned to training at four, the horse was all at sea, and raced only five times before being set aside again. "The spell actually did nothing for him, when he came back in at five. He came back in like he went out," he said.
Townley wasn't working on "little niggles" alone. Bill Bishop, an authoritative Christchurch equine vet and part-owner of the horse with his wife Helen and Ben and Karen Calder, was also on the job. Sundon's Luck was well enough to race last season at five, and win three races, but Townley said he did it "under sufferance". "In the end we think it was a fetlock problem, and it looks to be cured," he said.
Townley, who says he has "no complaints" about his left hand that was badly crushed in an accident last season, will not be surprised if Sundon's Luck remains competitive at the highest level. "I'm not saying he's any better than any of the others, but he is a great little racehorse."
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 22Sep04