| FEATURE RACE COMMENT |
YEAR: 2005
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| Pay Me Christian beating Alta Sirocco |
For the past 18 months, Kerr has been in residence at Preston Farm, where Robin Butt trains and his father-in-law Jack Litten did before that. Now it awaits the imminent arrival of the dozers and dump trucks that will turn it into a residential area.
Kerr will re-settle on the property of Wayne Higgs, where he says there is ample room for the two of them. "There are two lovely tracks and we both have our own barns. It is a training set-up designed for two stables, there is security and I'm looking forward to it," he said.
Kerr has another reason to consider the change so favourably. "We are only eight minutes from Spencer Park Beach. This is a great bonus. When I trained a Waikouaiti, I would train all the team on the beach between races, and I think the colts will benefit from that," he said.
This, and the near certainty of having the two favourites for the $150,000 NRM Sires' Stakes Final on Cup Day, gives Kerr a pretty exciting calendar. "It's certainly the best classic team I've had, but the racing team while we were at Waikouaiti got up to twenty," he said.
Pay Me Christian, who led throughout to beat Alta Sirocco by a neck in the ICE Bloodstock Rising Stars 3YO Championship, is off to Forbury Park this week to book his place for the final which would appear to be a formality. He will then have a breather before the Final. Alta Sirocco, who has won a heat of the Series, is already on his break and won't race again, outside of a trial, until the Final.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 12Oct05
YEAR: 2006
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| Pay Me Christian holds out Monkey King, Awesome Armbro (11) & Classic Line (5) |
From Kerr's seat in the Public Stand, he thought Pay Me Christian had got it; but it wasn't until a fellow supporter dashed down to watch the instant replay of the finish and gave the 'thumbs up' that Kerr could actually let go of the breath that he was holding. "Along with the Oaks and the New Zealand Cup, this is one of the three races that I've always wanted to win," Kerr said afterwards. "The Derby's such a prestigious event, because it's been around for nearly a hundred years. And to me it's always the first real glimpse of what's to come when they're four or five-year-olds. Quite often the first three home in the Derby will go on to become good open class horses, even great ones."
Being his final outing for the season, and last ditch attempt at winning a Derby at three, Friday was 'D-Day' for Pay Me Christian in a lot of ways too - especially from his pending stud career's perspective. Automatically 'valued' at a million dollars when a half share in the colt was sold to Nevele R Stud for $500,000 back in December, that sort of money demands results. Kerr knew that better than anyone else, and after Pay Me Christian had run last seven days earlier things were even more intense.
"You wouldn't be human if you didn't feel some sort of pressure in that situation," he admitted. "So I'm glad he won this, because the horse deserved it. With an ounce of luck he could've won either of the Great Northern or Victorian Derbys, or quite easily finished with all three - and then people would've been talking about him in a totally different way. He's been the best 3-year-old this season, no doubt, and in winning the Sires'Stakes Final and NZ Derby he got the two big ones."
Pay Me Christian was heading out for a spell regardless of where he finished on Friday night, and Kerr says he deserves that too. "Yes, he was starting to show signs that he was coming to the end of it," he agreed. His zip wasn't quite there, and he was a little bit leg-weary after all the miles he's done. When we came back from Aussie he was a wee bit tired, and we knew we had to tread lightly for a while - that's why he was probably a tad on the fresh side for his race last week. He's only had nine starts as a three-year-old, but it's been a long season for him. People forget that he was up as early as July, and that he's had to peak three or four times during the year. And more and more lately he's started to realise that he's a colt. He thinks he's the king of the castle round home, running around the paddock and calling out; he covers a lot more ground during the week than most horses."
Pay Me Christian will be out for three months, with Kerr wanting him to resume around mid-October so that he has a couple of runs under his belt before "possibly" tackling the Junior Free-For-All on Cup Day. "The Miracle Mile is his main target before Christmas, so we'll be chasing a start in it, and after that there's the Chariots, perhaps another trip to Australia, and then back to New Zealand for our two big 4-year-old features in Auckland. Next time in we're going to experiment a bit and give him a lot more beach training. We're that close to one, so we're going to make use of it and keep him away from the track as much as possible in between races. There's nothing wrong with his legs whatsoever, it's just something we're going to try to give him a bit of variety and keep him mentally fresh."
At the end of Pay Me Christian's 4-year-old season is when Nevele R Stud and the syndicate that races him will sit down and discuss things. Regardless of when the career change eventuates, Kerr has no doubt about what sort of sire he'll be - not only because of the fact that he's by Christian Cullen, or won eight of his 13 starts thus far, but also because he's got a "terrific" dam's family.
"You just wait until he steps out again next season - he'll let down into a magnificent stallion. At the moment he's still a bit of a boy in that respect, we're only halfway there."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 5Apr06
YEAR: 2007
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| Nick Off Holme (outer) beating Days Of Courage |
Just to rub salt into the wounds, Nick Off Holme was saddled with the outside of the second line for the $50,000 Firestone Free-For-All over a 1950 sprint journey on Cup Day, which was probably going to be short of her best should the race develop into not much more than the usual sprint for home. The situation did not seem to have changed much either as late in the piece as the field streaming past the 600m, where Nick Off Holme and regular pilot Stephen McNally had only Woodlea Life behind them and a seemigly impossible task before them. But racing is a funny game and this event had actually panned out just perfectly for such a dour stayer as Nick Off Holme, the 6-year-old Holmes Hanover mare.
The pace up front had been frenetic, and anyone who had engaged in it was starting to feel the pinch as they raced inside the furlong. Game 4-year-old Days Of Courage was proving the gamest of them all, but Nick Off Holme descended on him from the clouds and delivered the knockout blow right on the post. In scoring by a nose with a challenge that had been timed down to perfection by a thousandth, Nick Off Holmes posted an all-comers' national 1950m record of 2:19.8, a mile rate of 1:55.3 which will be of immense long-term value to her breeding career.
Changeover's 2:20.3 (MR 1:55.7) from last year's Sires' Stakes will remain as the 3-year-old record, and Rameses and Winforu can still lay claim to being the equal fastest older male pacers in 2:30.s, but Nick Off Holme is now the fastest of them all and obliterated the mares' record of 2:21.3 held by Flying Sands, set in a lower-class race on Show Day five years ago. "I thought they'd got away a wee bit on me, but I knew they'd gone hard and she would run home strongly," said McNally. "But I didn't think she could make up that much ground," he added. McNally also drove Rameses in his record on Show Day two years ago, but outside of Ella Powell's NZ Trotting Oaks last year, this was the biggest win of McNally's eight-year driving career.
Trainer Paul Kerr agreed that Nick Off Holme's Group 3 success was of some consolation and of benefit to her broodmare value, but still would have liked to have seen her in the Cup for principal Christchurch owner Rusty Smith, who races her with Oamaru's David Owens and Dunedin's Bob Shaw after securing her at the 2003 Australasian Classic Sale for $17,000. "Owners dont get too many chances to start in the Cup, and it would have been nice for Rusty to have been there," said Kerr. "And I think on what she has done in the past, she probably deserved to be there too. The races this season before today had just been going against her - she was having to do the work to make them," he added. Given that Nick Off Holme had won more races and stakes (10 wins and $125,317) than Cup starter Keeprightondreaming and could claim two fourths in her three preceding races compared with his one fourth, admittedly in the Kaikoura Cup, a pretty good case could have been made.
Nick Off Holme is now the winner of 11 races and $152,632, which also includes miles at Ashburton in 1:56 and 1:56.7 and a Cup Week double at Addington two seasons ago, and all things being equal she will get her Cup start next year before she begins her broodmare career. There had been no consideration given to the latter this year. "The plan this season was always to have a go at everything, particularly the big mares' races again. She will now be set for the Queen Of The Pacific in Auckland and then come back here in the New Year."
Nick Off Holme has been third in the last two NZ Standardbred Breeders' Stakes to It's Ella and Mainland Banner after being fourth and fifth in the Premier Mares' Championship the week before, while at last year's Cup Meeting she was second to Mainland Banner and pushed her to go a mares' record of 3:09.7 for the 2600m mobile. "She's been a bit unlucky to be born the same year as Mainland Banner and Foreal, but perhaps this will be her season.
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HR Weekly 15Nov07
YEAR: 2012
2012 GARRARD'S SIRES' STAKES 2YO FINAL
A good night became a great one for the Barry Purdon stable when Five Card Draw completed a Group One race double in the $180,000 Garrard's Sires' Stakes 2yo Final at Addington last Friday night.
With Bettor Sweet starting the ball rolling by earlier upsetting Mark Purdon with Didjamakem Bolt, who was racing out of his class in 2-3 win company due to the one-win mobile having to be dropped, Five Card Draw also completed a Bettor's Delight treble with Oaks winner Cheer The Lady for Barry with five starters in three races for the evening.
Purdon won the inaugural Sires Stakes in 1984 with Billbob and others in Auckland with Chokin and Montana Vance, along with Matai Mackenzie at Addington at Addington 12 years ago, but Addington has become the stomping ground of younger brother Mark since he moved to Canterbury in the mid 90s. His dominance of age group features at Addington has been such that the All Stars Stable has won the Sires Stakes no less than six times with Il Vicolo, The Court Owl, Light And Sound, Likmesiah, Fiery Falcon and Major Mark. But Purdon's juvenile firepower has been well down this season, partly because he has been buying yearlings in Australia, and only Sir Tosti Mach was eligible and qualified for this final.
The latter was a sound fourth and one of seven starters by Mach Three which filled the second to sixth placings, which would have been some sort of record had Five Card Draw not held such a big hand for Brent Mangos. Cran Dalgety also held a good hand for the race with three starters even without last week's Sales race winner Bit Of A Legend, and for about the first 1700m, it seemed as though Dexter Dunn was going to provide for an action replay. Just as he had done with Bit Of A Legend, Dunn used the electric speed of Abraxas to cross Five Card Draw at the start and then happily hand up and wait for the passing lane. Barry Purdon and Dalgety were both getting feelings of déjá vu when Abraxas poked up inside Five Card Draw at the furlong, but Mangos was just kidding and the least concerned of all.
With favourite Alta Christiano out of play early, Five Card Draw had got some easy sectionals before heading down the back and into the stiff southerly, and he had plenty in reserve on the occasion, coming away again near the finish. This was Five Card Draw's fourth win from six starts and having also won the Young Guns, th gelding has already earned $224,000, with another $75,000 awaiting them at the Jewels. Five Card Draw is Breeders Crown eligible, but Purdon will then turn him out and be back for the Sires' Stakes in the spring, "otherwise they don't get a break".
Bought from breeders Wayne and Jay Abernethy for $57,500 from Karaka last year, Five Card Draw was one of just two purchases that Purdon secured and he races the son of Blistering Belle with Auckland's Tyronne Cooke, Charmain Nausbaum and Alan Dormer. Purdon also bought a Grinfromeartoear-Erineyes colt in Los Amante shortly after in Auckland and while he qualified in February an "is going to win a race or two", Purdon is thankful he didn't acquire more at the time. "We couldn't find owners and wound up with shers in both of them as it was," said Purdon. Five Card Draw has "always looked like a nice horse from day one" though and Purdon expects him to improve further as he grows and strengthens into a 3-year-old.
The Paul Kerr camp was bitterly disappointed after Alta Christiano galloped early after being restrained by son Mitchell. "He's over reached and struck himself and what happened was just greenness," said Paul "He's never galloped before and panicked. They do pick the worst times to do these things," he added. If this seemed bad enough, things got worse for junior driver Mitchell. He was going to win the following event with Chianti, but the well-bred filly broke down so badly inside the 200m that she had to be put down.
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 23May2012