 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2000
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Some say luck has nothing to do with success; Wayne Ross begs to differ. Ross has continued to churn out champion after champion in recent years, but he shrugs off his success with these horses by saying luck has played a part in each of them. "I have just tried to reach a niche, and be regarded as a trainer of good young stock," he said.
Ross reached a pinnacle last year when he won 14 2-year-old races with his two fillies Tupelo Rose and Adios Dream, a feat which has never been achieved before. "The breed is the key," he says, adding that so is having owners that are prepared to buy into top bloodlines. "The spin off from having horses like Courage Under Fire and Tupelo Rose go through your stable is you end up being offered a better style of horse. And that is lucky," he said.
Ross might consider himself fortunate to be training his latest exciting juvenile Hero, but that eventuated moreso because of a good reputation than good fortune. Ross was at last year's Karaka Sales when his phone rang, and on the other end was a guy he had never met before called Bruno Papa. Papa wanted Ross's opinion of the In The Pocket-Alba Belle colt that was Lot 68, and Ross reported back that he looked like a nice type. After Hero went through the ring and was knocked down for $50,000, Ross received another call from Papa, who told him to take Hero home because he had bought him and wanted Ross to train the colt.
Now a gelding and raced in the name of Papa's wife Maria, Hero won his third race in five starts when leading from end to end in the $155,730 PGG Yearling Sales Series Open. An afterwards Ross used that 'luck' word again, saying that everything the 2-year-old wins this season is a bonus. "It is just his size," Ross continued. "At this stage he is like a big, overgrown kid and so unco-ordinated. He is a very proud horse though, and he holds himself very well. He has got a beautiful pacing action and that is why he looksl ike he is going in slow motion out there. He wears a 62-inch hopple, and that is big for a 2-year-old; I have never had a young horse go in a hopple that long before."
Ross has already had his share of 'fun' during Hero's brief career, with occasions like the gelding's debut at Motukarara when he lay down on the track still firmly etched in the memory. "He just didn't want to be there that day," Ross recalled. "But we had no option. I needed him to get some raceday form and he did that by finishing fourth. He won the Yearling Sales Graduate next start, but after that his blood was off and he pulled a flat tyre all the way in the Sires' Stakes heat at Addington. "He has been a bit difficult to train and a bit wayward, but all the time he is becoming more and more settled and more professional in his approach."
Ross believes Hero will let down into a magnificent individual in time. "I think he will be a good juvenile that ends up going all the way," he said. "He is not a natural 2-year-old, and lightly raced at three I think he will be an even better 4-year-old. He is dying to grow into his big frame, and after the Sires' Stakews Final he will be going out for a spell." The Ohoka horseman says this week's event will be an even harder task, with the draw once again playing a critical role. "Kevin (Townley, driver) said tonight was the best he has paced and the best he has driven yet. His blood still wasn't completely right either, so I think he will be even better again this week.
While only Bruno Papa was on-course to witness Hero's Yearling Sales Series victory, both he and Maria will be back again for this week's event. The couple manage a large cafe-type restaurant in Melbourne called The Fisherman's Bakehouse, which caters for over 200 people in a single sitting.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 10May00