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2012 NEVELE R FILLIES FINAL

O Baby reignited the race for top dog status amongst this season's 3-year-old fillies with a blistering turn of foot to race away with the $150,000 Nevele R Fillies Sreies No.34 Final at Addington on Saturday afternoon.

With dual G1 winner and favoured Twist And Twirl battling into fifth after plenty of early pressure, the title is still up for grabs and will likely be settled in this week's New Zealand Oaks and at the Jewels. Twist And Twirl will certainly appreciate the extra distance of the Oaks, but the race could still be wide open when the draws are done for a mile at Cambridge.

O Baby once again proved she is right up to the best in this group however when she carried Natalie Rasmussen to the biggest win of her brief and intermittent driving career in New Zealand. Rasmussen had no option but to ease O Baby back to last early from the outside of the front line, but with plenty of sparks flying up front over the first 800m, out of the early action was the best place to be and Rasmussen had O Baby in the three wide train and tracking Elusive Chick when it really mattered over the last 800m. Elusive Chick was brave after being camped three wide in the open, but O Baby had been sitting pretty and went whoosh over the closing stages to score by almost three lengths.

Rasmussen wound up second with Blacks A Fake in last year's Inter-Dominion in Auckland and her first driving success here was a good one with Vi Et Animo in the Methven Cup in the spring, but she had never been in this sort of position before. "I never really thought about much after the draws came out and even though we were travelling easily down the back, I didn't think about maybe getting up when we swung for home either," said Rasmussen. "But just towards the finish I thought to myself...oh shit...I'm going to win. O Baby had no luck in the big races while in Auckland, but she's quick and she's strong - she has a bit of everything and is versitile," she added.

Rasmussen, a 'third stringer' for the All Stars Stable behind Mark Purdon and Blair Orange, completed a memorasble day when Minnie Moose won the Pascoes The Jewellers FFA three races later, again accounting for partner and 'boss' Purdon with the favoured Southwind Arden and again for breeder-owners Braeden and Mrs Caroline Whitelock. The Whitelocks had an even more memorable day as Paddy Brown had started the ball rolling when bolting away with the ChCh Casino Pace for Orange.

This year's Fillies Final was a torrid affair right from the start and O Baby's 2:21 and 1:56.3 mile rate in a cold and breezy easterly was exceptional, second onlt to Carabella's 2:19.7 in much better conditions last year and since the race went to 1950m 14 years ago. Purdon had to do his utmost to keepThe Burning Question from crossing in the first 400m, and then Twist And Twirl soon had the attentions of Dancing Diamonds and Here We Go Again, the latter maintaining the pressure as Carpenter's Daughter and Alchemist also made midrace moves for position. In the end it was the three horses in the three wide train over the last half that filled the first three placings.

"She wasn't a big foal but she could be very naughty - Caroline would have to take a stick with her at feeding time," said Braeden. "Mark has always said she's like a big horse in a small body trying to break out," he added. O Baby won last year's Sires Stakes in Auckland, but having just missed at the Jewels a race later, this success at Addington and in Canterbury was special and the best yet for the Whitelocks as breeder-owners. They race dual Sales race winner Dancing Diamonds ($342,000) with Phil and Margaret Creighton after buying her at the Premier, but she has yet to win a G1 and O Baby has now won two and $243,000.

More to the point for them, Caroline is a daughter of Nelson Dalzell of the 'Moose' breed and hails from Culverden, and O Baby descends from a family which produced Nelson Derby for her great grandfather George Craw in the 1920s. Nelson Derby was from Norice and the Whitelocks got back into this family when they acquired Tuapeka Star (Smooth Fella-Sakuntala) late in life and bred the good racemare and now producer Braeside Star. That Soky's Atom mare has left good winners in Ohoka's Artsplace, Braeside Derby, Johnny Bravo, Paddy Brown and the promising Bettorbeastar, and O Baby is the first foal from her only unraced daughter in the Artsplace mare Braeside Lady. Artsplace was a big factor in this race as he also sired Twist And Twirl and Carpenter's Daughter.

The second foal from Braeside Lady in a Bettor's Delight colt has died, but the mare has a weanling brother bound for Karaka next year and she is back in foal to Mach Three. "Our rule is always to sell the colts and keep the fillies and never have more than six broodmares, so sometimes we've sold the odd filly like Meredith Maguire (2nd in Fillies Final two years ago). "We'll be guided by Mark on what's best to do with O Baby, but maybe we'll have to make room for her one day and it'll be her mother that has to go.

"This has been a wonderful day for us, but we had a jolt earlier to remind us what has happened here and that many other people are still hurting."

Credit: Frank Marion writing in HRWeekly 16 May 2011

2012 CANTERBURY BREEDERS NEW ZEALAND OAKS

Zac Butcher drove his first Group One winner and trainer Barry Purdon had his best night at southern headquarters in a long time when Cheer The Lady triumphed in a thrilling $100,000 Canterbury Breeders New Zealand Oaks at Addington last Friday night.

After going out on his own account, Purdon won the 2YO Sales race back in 1996 when Gran Montana upset Bogan Fella and brother Mark, but his biggest night out at Addington before this was a couple of years later when Holmes D G won the Derby and Anvil Vance the Easter Cup. Purdon has won the Oaks before with Pacific Flight and Julie Vance back in the early 90s, but that was when training with father Roy and Mark drove.

For young Butcher, 21 last month, this was easily a highlight in a career which has been rapidly heading skyward for four seasons now. Wins by Bettor Sweet and Cheer The Lady took his tally this term to 96, just two behind his father David in the race behind Dexter Dunn (145) by the close of the meeting. In his previous three seasons as a junior, Butcher has won 18, 45 and 59 races. The latter figure took him into third among the juniors, but he has Matt Williamson well covered this season and the century is only a matter of weeks away.

Butcher, who won last years Gr2 Delightful Lady Classic in Auckland with Precious Rose, made a critical decision at the 1300m which ultimately paved the road to gold. He was following Twist And Twirl at this point, but when she made her move from four back in the running line to eventually wrestle the lead off Here We Go Again, Butcher opted to stay in when most would have latched on. Another critical point came passing the 700m when Living The Dream, who had followed Twist And Twirl, began to give ground and carted Pemberton Shard and Elusive Chick back with her.

Butcher was improving three wide on the back of Precious Rose while all this was happening, and a short time later Cheer The Lady was able to drop into the one-one. In effect Cheer The Lady had spent little in manoeuvring into such a challenging position, and she had Twist And Twirl covered early in the run home. O Baby, favoured by a good draw on this occasion but inconvenienced by the stubborn longshot Strata Star for a good half mile, had a brief time in the lead before winding up four back. She had some luck when Elusive Chick moved one off and got lost, the three back position enabling her to out finish Here We Go Again for a close third.

This was a frenetically run affair on a bitterly cold and windy night and Cheer The Lady's 3:11.6 was the second fastest ever recorded behind De Lovely's 3:10.9 two years ago, which was the third of David Butcher's three Oaks within seven years. "Things panned out really well in the end, but you need a bit of luck in these races," said Butcher. "She's a tough sort which follows speed really well. Twist And Twirl fought back in the run home, but when I gave my filly another one she went again," he added.

By Bettor's Delight and the fourth of four consecutive filly foals from the Albert Albert mare Galleons Cheer, a granddaughter of No Regrets, Cheer The Lady was bred by Gary Allen and prepared by Aimee Edmonds for the second day of the 2010 Premier Sale, where Purdon sorted her out for $57,500. She was one of seven sales purchases that year by Purdon for a syndicate comprising the 18-member Auckland syndicate Clear View Racing No.2 headed by Len Oughton, along with Terry Henderson, Kevin Riseley, Ted Edwards, Hawkes Bay's Thomas Corson and John Lohman, the latter on hand from Perth. Six of those yearlings have raced and five have won, with the others including Precious Rose($126,650) and Smo($47,528), with only a Real Desire colt not making the grade.

"Cheer The Lady never really impressed us at all last year until a few weeks before the NZ Cup meeting when she resumed at Cambridge," said Purdon. "I wasn't confident then and when she got parked, I thought we're in trouble here, but she just got beat a nose. Then she won in Auckland a week later and she hasn't looked back since. She's a great doing filly - the only thing that bothers her in not enough feed - and she's kept improving with racing and as she's got stronger," he added.

Purdon decided not to make the $15,000 late payment for the Fillies Series, as "you had to win a heat to justify that and then you could draw bad in the final." This meant he could freshen her with a six week break from racing after winning at Alexandra Park in mid March, where she erased Carabella's NZ record in posting 2:40.7 (MR 1:57.5) for 2200m mobile, and set her for the Oaks and Jewels. Apart from driving Precious Rose into second in the Sires' Stakes behind Twist And Twirl at Christmas, Butcher has driven the long striding and deceptively fast Cheer The Lady in all her 11 races this season, where she has now recorded six wins, two seconds and two thirds for $109,717.

Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 23May2012