 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1980
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| The Duchess of Kent presents the Cup to Hands Down's owner Bill McAughtrie |
It was only a year ago. Winning the 1980 New Zealand Cup was the furtherest thought in Bill McAughtrie's mind. "In fact," he confessed only minutes after his tough five-year-old gelding Hands Down had indeed won the Cup, "I had a horse I knew had a ton of ability, but I never thought he'd ever win a race. He was a wayward animal," Mr McAughtrie said before being hustled off to receive the gleaming trophy from the Duchess of Kent.
But in the last year, most of it in the hands of Templeton trainer Derek Jones, Hands Down has lost just about all those wayward tendencies and has won a dozen races in the meantime. From maiden to New Zealand Cup winner in a matter of months...a fairy tale of progress for Bill McAughtrie, a farmer from Omararama, and his wife.
And equally meteoric has been the rise of Hands Down's driver, twenty-five-year-old Peter Jones. Last Tuesday's was his first drive in the Cup. And in it he was able to achieve what father Derek, astute horseman that he is, has been unable to do in his twenty drives in New Zealand's premier race over the years. Peter was also able to credit his father with his first training success in the Cup after having many horses in the past who have made it to Cup class. Hands Down was Derek's thirteenth runner in the race, a point that prompted him, with usual quickness of wit, to suggest to the nearby reporters: "If I'd known that, I would have backed him."
Hands Down, though, has long been marked as a top Cup prospect. He won his first race at Timaru last December and then proceeded to win his next three as well. He missed a few times before winning a class four and five free-for-all at Addington in February, scored a third and then failed in three more races. Then again he lined up at Addington in April to begin an unbroken sequence of six unbeaten starts, four at the end of last term and two fine performances at the National meeting on the course in August.
The first of those August wins took him into the Cup and his win on the second night, a tough performance in anyone's language, marked him as the horse to watch if he lined up in New Zealand's premier staying race. A stayer Hands Down certainly is. He's taken five of his dozen victories over the exteme distance,more than any of his rivals last week.
He's big and strong and, according to Peter Jones, he's a lovely horse to work with at home. He's still relatively lightly raced (he hasn't had thirty races yet) and this, along with losing a lot of confidence after falling at the start of one of his early races at Forbury, contributes a little to his "greenness". The stipes weren't all that impressed with his Forbury performance and put him out for a month and made him trial to their satisfaction before they let him race again.
"Quietly confident" before last weeks event, Jones said he first knew the Armbro Del gelding was extra good when he missed away in a four-year-old race at Invercargill last December and yet still thrashed the likes of Lincmac, Historic Moment and Matai Dreamer.
It was no thrashing, though, Hands Down handed out to this year's star-studded Cup field. At the line, he had only a neck to spare from the brilliant northern mare Delightful Lady, whose run for her placing in an incredible 4:06.1 was a feature of the race. Hands Down's time of 4:07.2 was a record for the race. Delightful Lady, in turn, was four lengths to the good of old Sapling with another northerner in Greg Robinson three lengths further back.
Where Hands Down lost ground at the start, "The Lady" too was a little slow but soon made up her 15 metre handicap. She tagged onto the back of the main bunch, four lengths in front of the breakers Hands Down, Trio, Canis Minor, Roydon Scott - and the luckless Lord Module who let the others get 200 metres in front before moving off for John Noble. At the half-way stage Hands Down was tucked up behind the mare but soon after Jones took off in search of the lead with Wee Win, Mack Dougal and Trevira. He was outside Wee Win at the 1000 with Mike Stormont and Delightful Lady now back in the second line but three wide.
Hands Down mastered Wee Win at the 600 and at that moment Stormont started his charge. These two sorted themselves out and set sail for the judge some lengths clear of the rest. Delightful Lady actually got her head in front of Hands Down half-way down the straight but he fought back well to take the decision. Third-placed Sapling, in peak of condition, was, according to driver Doug Mangos, held up by a tiring Trevira at the 500 metres. "The leaders got away on me then and those three or four lengths I had to make up were just too much," he said. "Still, he ran on really well. It was a top run."
Greg Robinson, in the hands of Peter Wolfenden, pleased his owner Max Robinson with the way he stuck on after getting a good run mostly, even though a little wide down the back. And at the same time Robinson confessed, not without the inevitable smile however, to being a little disappointed after the race. "We thought we'd go home with the horse having won $100,000 in stakes." However his $6,000 for fourth took him to just on $96,000. "But we'll hit the target over the next few weeks once we get home," Robinson said. "They're easier up there." On his horse's performance last week, he wasn't being too optimistic. Greg Robinson was down to start in last Friday night's $20,000 Franklin Cup, a race Stormont was taking Delightful Lady back north for as well.
Stormont was a little critical of one aspect of last Tuesday's race, the lack of a tape on the 15 metre mark. "She was standing back when they went; we might have been 20 metres for all anyone knows. And then she was waiting for the tape. When it goes, she goes," he said explaining her slight tardiness at the start. He was returning home almost immediately because the stake at Franklin was better than for the Free-For-All and the northern opposition was weaker. "In the Free-For-All she'd have to go hard again and with the Addington track as hard as it is, her splints would make he a bit scratchy," he said. Besides, they'd be racing on their home track. however, he would return to Addington for another crack at the Breeders' Stakes, a race she won earlier this year.
The favourite, Roydon Scott, missed the start and really never had the chance to show the form that saw him unbeaten in his two other starts this season. Trainer-driver Fred Fletcher thought perhaps the big horse might have been "a bit fresh" in spite of some hard runs at the recent trials. "It's a long time since he's done that, and you can't do it in a race like this. It was a hopeless task trying to make up that ground".
If Roydon Scott's task was hopeless, Lord Module, well backed by the Addington crowd, set himself an impossible job by refusing to go again at the start. Last season's pacing sensation, starting from the unruly mark on 10 metres, didn't go for a long time and tailed the field by a long way all through. I was the final ignominy when he was later barred by the stipendary stewards from racing off standing starts. How quickly the mighty fall from grace. But amongst the jeers from a section of the 20,000 strong crowd, as Lord Module and John Noble went past on their own, there were more than a few murmurs of sympathy for a previously great performer. On looks alone on Tuesday, he should have won his second Cup.
But, realistacally, for the beaten lot there were no excuses. Hands Down and Delightful Lady trounced them well and truly.
Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar
YEAR: 1980
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
PETER JONES - HANDS DOWN 1960
Young drivers were unusual in the Cup in earlier decades but many produced their best drive in the race first time of asking. None did better than 25-year-old Peter Jones behind Hands Down in 1980. Peter had the faith of his selfless father Derek, who heavily promoted youth at his own expense but was an amazing natural talent.
Hands Down went into the Cup a much discussed enigma, ending up only 6th favourite. Slow as usual, Peter bowled him along until the 1600m. He lapped the field, burned off Wee Win in a fast quarter down the back and headed for home. Too Soon? Some thought so as Delightful Lady loomed at the turn. As if.
The mare got half a length lead. Mike Stormont took a quick peek to his right to check for any outside challengers. He looked the wrong way. The danger was the young man carved in stone inside him. Waiting, waiting, waiting... When the last question was asked close to the post the big horse responded, it was one of the most exciting of modern Cups.
Peter's two Cup wins were an unusual replica of Jack Kennerley's, his first was waiting in front and in his second, the bombshell of Borana in 1984, he was near last at the 700m and still got home. As great drivers do.
TRIVIA FACT: Trainer Derek Jones actually only drove Hands Down once in a race before the 1980 Cup. He ran fifth in a maiden at an on-course only meeting at Blenheim. Within 13 months he was to win a New Zealand Cup, possibly the most incredible progression of any pacer in modern times.
Credit: Davic McCarthy writing in Harnessed 2016