 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2011
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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De Lovely had her first test against the open class pacers on Saturday at Addington and passed with flying colours.
Trailing all the way on a moderate tempo, De Lovely always looked like she would have the last say up the passing lane in the $25,000 United Fisheries Ltd Summer Cup - and so it proved, the Falcon Seelster mare zipping past the pacemaker Monkey King and Highview Tommy to win with something in hand.
"Monkey King was probably still a run short," conceded driver David Butcher. "I mean, you look in the book and Monkey King's won $3.4 million - at $580,000-odd, we're way behind. The only speed in the race came when Hghview Tommy loomed up at th 100m mark and had a look, that was it."
Butcher justified his driving tactics at De Lovely's previous start when she couldn't beat the mares, saying "I thought I could sit last and still pick them up. You've got to remember that it was her first start for five weeks. But they're not machines. Horses are so hard to manage sometimes, and the team at Wigram Lodge have obviously done a good job with her in the interim. She's beautiful to sit behind, because she's got such a lovely gait."
Trainer Ian Small and De Lovely's connections are pretty much adopting a 'take it as it comes' approach to the remainder of the season, because there's plenty of races like the Harness Jewels at Ashburton and Taylor Mile/Messenger in Auckland at her disposal without even thinking about the trans-Tasman battle at Addington which starts next month. "Inter-Dominions? We'll see," Butcher said. "We thought she'd have about eight races this season, and she's already had six."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 9Feb2011