 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2000
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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The $96,500 Pyne Gould Guinness Sales Series Pace had an ironic twist to it. First home in the 3-year-old fillies event was Ciccio Star, who is raced by the Ciccio Breeding Syndicate; last home was Belle Matao, who is part-owned by Phil Creighton. Creighton was supposed to be part of Ciccio Star's syndicate, but on the morning of that the two fillies went under the hammer at Karaka he pulled out, wanting to buy one on his own.
"We had marked down four that we wanted to bid on - Belle Matao, Ciccio Star and two others," recalled Sandy Yarndley. Yarndley and his wife Jan bred Ciccio Star themselves, and jumped at the chance to be involved in a syndicate, regardless of which horse they ended up buying. "After Phil pulled out the group couldn't afford to bid on Belle Matao, and Phil bought her by himself. She was the dearest of the four of them; the one we bought, Ciccio Star, was the cheapest," he said.
Knocked down to them for $23,000, Ciccio Star took her earnings to $91,893 when she shot out of the trail to snatch victory. It was a great thrill for the Ciccio Breeding Syndicate, which also consists of the Yarndley's son Scott; retired Dunedin resident Jim Pattison; Auckland's Max Hunter, who handled the bidding on Sale day; Chris and Shona Quinlan, of Te Awamutu, and Helen McPherson of Hamilton.
Trained by Barry Purdon, Ciccio Star showed ability from an early age. "Mike Berger broke her in, and liked her enough to think she would make a 2-year-old, so we pressed on," Purdon said. "She did alright at that age, winning two and running a couple of nice seconds, but then she was a little disappointing when she came back at the start of this season. She is pretty competative at home, so I changed her work around a bit and it seems to have helped," he said.
Both Purdon and Ciccio Star's reinsman Tony Herlihy agreed that the filly's performance to finish second at Alexandra Park late last month was a turning point. "She did a bit of work to get around them and lead that night, and was only beaten a nose by Glenburn Comet," Herlihy said. "Then she came out a week later and beat a nice field of C1s, that was a good effort too," he said.
Having won four of her 15 starts, Ciccio Star will now be aimed at a heat of the Hydroflow series, hopefully qualifying for the Final at Addington on May 12.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 23Feb00