 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1975
HORSES
FINAL DECISION
Many of the greatest 'one off' performances in racing are from 'chasers' horses which put up apparently impossible efforts after losing any realistic chance early. There have been a huge number of them over the years but not many to match that of Final Decision in the 1975 New Zealand Cup won in outstanding fashion by the Southland pacer, Lunar Chance.
It may well be the greatest non-winning performance in the history of the Cup, and that is saying something.
Final Decision was anything but ordinary. His sire Hi Blue was practically unknown, he was no oil printing and Derek Heckler had bought him for$600 from colourful Jim Donaldson. Then he had gone to America to race as a younger horse and thus became the first American raced pacer to start in a New Zealand Cup in modern times.
On Cup Day, driven by Robert Mitchell, Final Decision who had not won a race in 17 starts that year, began well and then went off stride after 200m. Mitchell, who was almost in tears after the race, could not explain why. But then Final Decision had always had a few quirks.
It was what happened next which astonished. Timed to be 9 seconds(about 100m)behind the leaders when he settled, Final Decision set off on an impossible mission. Around the 800m mark he caught the field and commenced to circle it. Nobody expected that to last long and he was twice checked on the way, yet rallied again in the straight to beat all but the winner.
Lunar Chance was rightly lauded for his gritty win because he didn't have all favours either, but nobody could believe what Final Decision had done. He had been timed by Dave Cannan to run his last 2400m in 2:58.8 when the national record was 3:03. And the Cup had hardly been a walk in the park at 4:08.6. "I had fought them off and then that horse came along. He was so wide I thought he had got me," Keith Lawlor said later.
Lunar Chance beat Final Decision on his merits in the Free-For-All before the northerner set a new national 2600m record of 3:16.6turning the tables in the Matson Free-For-All. He broke down in the Pan Am Mile and never featured in New Zealand again returning to race in mobiles in America.
Gone but never forgotten.
Credit: David McCarthy writing in Harnessed Feb 2016