 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2000
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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By now, Tupelo Rose will be back home in Melbourne. On Saturday she was in Auckland, on Friday she was in Christchurch, winning the Hydroflow Fillies Series Final from Dancingonmoonlight and Caps Off at Addington, and on Monday trainer Ted Demmler was unsure whether she would havejust one more Oaks start this season or two.
"It all depends on her," he said. "She can have two, bu it has been a big season for her. She is not jaded. That's not the right word. But it is probably true to say that she has come back to the other fillies more than they have come up to her," he said.
Demmler blamed himself and his drive for the defeat of Tupelo Rose in the New Zealand Oaks the week before. "I was disappointed she got beaten in that race," he said. "If you get one on your back that is going well and if you get one or two niggling at you along the way, as happened in the Oaks, it makes you go a bit sooner than you would like to. On Friday night, the second and third horses both came off nice runs, but I felt at the end that my filly could have drawn away," he said.
Demmler said he was pleased with the manner in which Tupelo Rose had recovered from her Hydroflow win. "She has pulled up as if she hasn't been around. Her handler is more buggered than she is. She just loves racing, enjoys her work at home and has a wonderful constitution," he said. Demmler said he had no plans for her next season, but said the Inter-Dominions "and races like that" were out.
Demmler trains Tupelo Rose for Gordon Banks and Marc Hanover, of New York, and John Curtin, of New Zealand, who bought her from Andrew Gannell and partners for approximately $A300,000. "I haven't met her American owners," said Demmler,"but I was surprised Andrew sold her. Banks and Hanover, partners with George Shaw in the stallion Presidential Ball, were keen to align themselves with the industry while in New Zealand at Easter and told Curtin to "buy them the best filly." She has since raced six times for them, winning five and finishing a close second in the other.
"Marc and Gordon have heard ever race she has been in, and can't speak highly enough of Ted's professionalism and the way he operates," Curtin said. "They plan to leave her down here, and she will go to Presidential Ball eventually. Their plan is to re-invest down here, and they have made a great start," he said.
As it turned out, the three principals in the finish of the Oaks were the same three in the finish of the Hydroflow.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 17May00