 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2011
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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The often underrated Musgrove was a tenacious winner of the Listed Ordeal Cup at Addington last Friday night. He won the race at the expense of his more-favoured stablemate Dr Hook, who was third and not as sharp as he was in winning in a slick 2.01.7 mile rate for 2600m a week earlier.
Musgrove has an excellent record - 15 wins and $140,000 from 69 starts - but he has been a devilishly hard horse to follow. His intermediate seasons were notorious for his patchy starting manner, but that's now pretty much the way it used to be. He ended his last campaign on a winning note, and started his present one off the same way, beating Burano on August 26. He was then beaten by Dr Hook a week before the Ordeal, although there wasn't a lot in it. In view of that, Musgrove shouldn't have been discarded in the betting the way he was - $15 was more than enough for a seasoned horse in such enthusiastic form.
Driven by ex-trainer David Butt, Musgrove worked up and took the lead off Dr Hook at the 1400m. A hard horse to head on most days, Musgrove called the shots from there and held off Clover Don, who was quick at the end and ran him to three-quarters of a length. "His manners have let him down in the past," said trainer Paul Nairn.
The chestnut is raced by "Bolty" Paterson, who bought out the previous owners in the horse a year ago. There was no rush to make excuses for Dr Hook, who was a little flat trying to find two lengths in the run in.
Nairn is seldom without a good reserve bench, and he has one: Idid It Myway is jogging and due back, he has a 2-year-old from Inspire he likes, and No Boundaries, a 3-year-old by Pegasus Spur from Time Of Reckoning, is a name to remember.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 21 Sep2011