 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1990
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Tight Connection easily wins the Air NZ FFA from Rebe Lord |
Having proved his real class once again by trouncing high-class opposition in the $85,000 Air New Zealand NZ Free-For-All, Tight Connection is poised to write many more exciting chapters to his already memorable saga. Now foremost in the sights of the crack Auckland pacer are the $A300,000 Sydney Miracle Mile on November 30, the $300,000 Ansett New Zealand Auckland Cup on December 29 and the $500,000 Inter-Dominion Grand Final in Auckland next March.
Already, from only 26 starts - punctuated by a series of severe setbacks which he has shrugged off one by one - Tight Connection has bankrolled a remarkable $1,409,015 in stakemoney and bonuses. Thrilled with the Miracle Mile invitation, issued by New South Wales Harness Racing Club committeeman Tony McGrath after the Free-For-All win, trainers Roy and Barry Purdon have accepted and only misadventure will thwart the trip. The connections of Neroship informed McGrath before the Free-For-All that, win, lose or draw, they had decided not to accept a Miracle Mile invitation. Stablemate Reba Lord, Tight Connection's runner-up in the FFA after wrecking his Cup chances after an inordinately (even for him) bad start, remains in Christchurch for the Monsanto FFA (mobile 2600m).
Not in the clear until the New Zealand Cup was out of his grasp, Tight Connection showed what might have been with his end-to-end Free-For-All win in 2:26 for the mobile 2000m (a 1:57.5 mile rate), capped off with a sizzling 55.5 final 800m. "And he did it on his ear," said the chestnut's elated pilot Tony Herlihy. Reba Lord, cleverly handled by co-trainer Barry Purdon, had enough in the tank to get up for second two and a quarter lengths from Tight Connection, shading Bold Sharvid (who trailed the winner throughout) and Lord Magic (who battled gamely after being parked out for most of the last lap).
Tight Connection never left an oat after the win. "He's a nice horse, with such a lot of potential," enthused Roy Purdon. "He seems to be getting better and better. He's done no racing yet, really - not the miles of some of those other Cup horses. "He's had a lot of setbacks, and he's come through them all with flying colours. The wind operation he had seems to have been a hundred percent successful, which is great since they wouldn't guarantee it and gave him something like a 60-40 chance."
Raced these days by Ric Ellis and Ross Weavers (two of his original owners) with the Horseplayers Corporation Syndicate and the Club Connection Syndicate, Tight Connection, a five-year-old Soky's Atom entire, must also have excellent stud potential.
Credit: Ron Bisman writing in HR Weekly