 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2001
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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Colin De Filippi had been thinking about it all week. Thinking about how he was going to turn the tables on Flight South. After all, he and his wife Julie had lined Kym's Girl up in the NZ Premier Mares Championship knowing she was at the top of her game; they didn't expect to win, but they did not expect her to get beaten the way she did either. Fully respecting that Kym's Girl only deserved second prize that night, De Filippi wanted a different result in the Caduceus Club of Canterbury NZ Standardbred Breeders Stakes.
The first part of the plan fell into place when Kym's Girl drew two and Flight South five, but he kept quiet about how he was going to play it on the night and even those closest to him did not know. In the end, history will show it to be just another classic 'CJ' drive. Flash Tactics and Ricky May speared away from their 'ace' draw so quickly that it gave De Filippi and Kym's Girl all three options...Take a trail, sit parked and wait for cover, or push forward. When nothing came around De Filippi opted for the latter, probably smiling that he had not needed to use too much petrol getting there. From in front the race was theirs for the controlling, and when De Filippi took a sneaky peek around with 800 metres to run he could see he had Flight South right where he wanted her - last. A furlong later Flight South was inching forward ominously with cover like she had done the previous week, but De Filippi still had a handful of his own mare and wasn't going to be outsprinted this time. He asked Kym's Girl to go rounding the home bend and they stole the show; last half in 56.6, quarter in 27.4, I'll take this one thanks. "The race was always going to come down to a battle of tactics, especially when it dropped down to a nine horse field," De Filippi said afterwards.
It was Bill Denton, the stable's most respected employee, that planted the seed in his son-in-law's mind about taking Kym's Girl to the front, because he had driven the mare that way in lead-up work and said she had felt good being there. "She had been tried that way in races before without much success, but she is stronger this season and we have been trying to teach her to find the line," De Filippi said.
Apart from co-training the fourth mare in history to win back-to-back Breeders Stakes, joining Lento (1995,1996), Blossom Lady (1991,1992,1993)and Bonnie's Chance (1982,1983,1984), De Filippi also had the satisfaction of proving a point about his mare's ability after finishing second the previous week. "I heard someone say this year's Breeders Stakes field was weaker than past years, but when you have got an Auckland Cup winner, a Hannon Memorial winner and a previous winner of the event it can't be all that weak. Kym's Girl would definitely rate up with the best mares I have driven; horses like Idolmite, Quiet Touch and Adio Routine," he said.
Kym's Girl was entrusted to the De Filippi stable by her owners David Miller, Bill Marra and Graeme Trist. She developed unsoundness in a hoof following her game run for third in last years' NZ Cup, and it was thought that having access to a pool would help her training and she has responded well to it. Kym's Girl will start once more before the Easter Cup, after which she will have a spell and be aimed again at the NZ Cup.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 21Mar01