 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2002
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Shortys Girl & Allan Beck burst clear |
Graham and Moira Bell have experienced both sides of the coin when it comes to harness racing. And, oddly enough, both their greatest and saddest moments relate to the same four-legged individual.
About a decade ago the Bells bought the Kentucky mare Spygirl off Curtin's Farms, who was in foal to Soky's Atom at the time. The resulting foal was Soky's Girl, and from 25 visits to the track she managed to win them one race and $4525. "She had a tonne of zip," Graham recalled. "But she got a virus early on in her career and never really got over it," he lamented.
Retired to stud, Soky's Girl's first foal was the New York Motoring filly Shorty's Girl, and while they waited for her to grow old enough to race they continued to send Soky's Girl to different stallions. "We have had nothing but bad luck breeding from her," Bell continued. "She lost a few foals, came home not in foal a couple of times, but then one year she took to In The Pocket and gave birth to a beautiful colt. Last season we were just getting ready to wean him when he died of colitis; that would be the biggest dissappointment we have had to experience."
Last Friday night at Addington, luck tossed the Roslyn Bush couple a moment they will remember for all the right reasons when Shortys Girl blitzed a quality field of mares in the $75,000 Caduceus Club of Canterbury NZ Standardbred Breeders Stakes. Beautifully positioned on the outside with cover by trainer/driver Allan Beck, Shortys Girl made a mockery of her suggested inexperience when she shot away from the opposition in the straight.
From just the 13 starts, Shortys Girl has now won seven and is yet to come home without a cheque, banking $88,000. "I thought this race might have been a year too soon for her," Beck said afterwards. "She was held up when she finished fourth in the Oaks here last season, but she went 3:16 that night so I thought then that she would have a future. She has got a good engine, and a bit of speed," he said.
Back home in Invercargill over the weekend, the Bells were still buzzing from what was just their second visit to Addington Raceway. "The whole trip has been an amazing experience," Graham said. "We can't thank Allan and his partner Jo Geering enough for their dedication to the horses." The Bells, who are "in their sixties" haven't started thinking about retirement just yet. The have farmed sheep and beef on a 550-acre property in Roslyn Bush for most of their lives, but have been cutting the size of the farm down in recent years as they prepare to move to a smaller and more manageable property in Lochiel, south of Winton.
There will always be plenty of room for the horses though, and there are a few ...broodmares Spygirl, Soky's Girl, Kanegold and Browngate Happy, some 4-year-olds, a couple of 2-year-olds and two yearlings. "We like to have a bit to do with getting the horses up and running before passing them onto the likes of Allan or Tony (Barron)," Graham said. "Our neighbour Angus Mawdsley is great help, and we work them up over Winter time. We are great believers in handling the horses at a young age, and start leading them as soon as they come back from the stud on their mothers. It can make all the difference, they really respond to you," he said.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 06Feb02