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Galleon's Assassin parades after the win

Galleon's Assassin, last season's Trotting Stakes and Breeders' Crown winner, took the first step along a rich trail of pickings on offer this year in his stride with an authoritative display to win the $50,000 Christchurch Casino NZ Trotting Derby at Addington last Friday night.

The Earl gelding will back up this week for the $50,000 PGG Yearling Sales event, where his task will be appreciably easier with neither Brite Speed or Houdini Star eligible, and then head to Auckland for the $50,000 Sires' Stakes Championship on April 28, along with a couple of other races,before returning home for a freshen-up. He will then be set for the Breeders' Crown in August, following the same schedule and path which brought success in the $114,180 2-year-old Trot last year.

Ironically, Galleon's Assassin won the Breeders' Crown on the eve of trainer Mark Purdon spending a period on the sidelines, and he marked his first Group 1 race success since returning to the fray in January. He was also the middle leg of a winning treble for Purdon on the Premier Night, while top 2-year-old filly Top Tempo is unbeaten in three features including the Group 2 Nevele R Stakes, but the form of Jays Debut in recent weeks remains a mystery for him.

Raced by Purdon's wife Vicki and Aucklander Fred Tong, a long-time family friend, Galleon's Assassin was sorted out by Purdon from the 2004 Remier Sale and purchased for $33,000. "I hadn't had a trotter for a while and neither had Freddy, so we agreed to go halves in one and he was the one I liked the most." said Purdon. "He had a good head and eye, and a good barrel," he added. Tong, 50, raced a good trotter in the 70s in Butch Cassidy, but since has "just had the odd one or two-win horse".

Galleon's Assassin is the fifth foal and fifth winner from the Chiola Hanover mare Rob The Nest (6 wins), a grand-daughter of Robyn Evander, whose first two foals were the brilliant but ill-fated Sonofthedon and Group 1 winner Thedonsson, and since the mares Charlotte Galleon and Whosinthenest. Rob The Nest has since Galleon's Assassin, left fillies by S J's Photo and Sundon and a colt by Armbro Invasion, and is back in foal to Earl.

Galleon's Assassin's experience and class stood to him in his latest feature race success. Four Carat took up the early running, but Galleon's Assassin soon crossed him from barrier eight, as main danger Houdini Star missed the call-up and spotted the field 30 to 40 metres before they had begun. Houdini Star circled the field to join the pacemaker a lap out and give Brite Speed the one-one, but Galleon's Assassin had them both covered a good way from home. "I didn't know Houdini Star had made a mistake, but I did know I had him covered at the quarter and I was just waiting for Brite Speed to come." Brite Speed was struggling to keep up well before the quarter however, and came in a disappointing eighth. Fout Carat followed the winner around for second ahead of the Paul Nairn-trained fillies Paramount Gem and Insist, who likewise never left the fence from three and four-back until the run home.

Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 5Apr06

Galleons Assassin beating Lady Segil

Surprisingly, Mark Purdon is only training one trotter. But it is a good one, and he proved that in no uncertain terms when winning last Friday night's $25,000 Group 2 NRM NZ Two-year-old Trotting Stakes at Addington.

Galleons Assassin was registering the first victory of his four start career last week, but a simple glance at his bloodlines hints that there is a lot more in store. He is an Earl gelding out of the Chiola Hanover mare Rob The Nest, who has taken her career to even greater heights than her six wins on the track by leaving one good horse after another.

All bred by either Neil Munro or Gary Allen singularly or in partnership, Rob The Nest's foals of racing age are: Sonofthedon, a Sundon gelding who recorded seven wins and four seconds from his 11 starts and looked a superstar in the making before injury brought about his demise; Thedonsson, a full-brother who has raced 28 times for six wins, seven placings and nearly $97,000 in earnings thus far; Charlotte Galleon, yet another Sundon, qualified and lightly-raced with only four starts to date; Whosinthenest, a 3-year-old Armbro Invasion filly who has been placed from the same amount of appearances; and now Galleons Assassin.

"I think everyone's forgotten about me with trotters," quipped Purdon, on his return to the stabling area last week. The Yalhurst trainer specifically went to last year's PGG Premier Yearling Sale with the intention of taking home a trotter, and top of the shopping list was Galleons Assassin. "Yes, he is the one I picked out; I liked him on type," Purdon said. "What the mare had already left spoke for itself - Earl was the only factor we didn't know anything about." Family friend Fred Tong was keen on the idea too, and when he asked Purdon what he thought they would have to pay the answer was "up to thirty-five"; he was spot on, for $35,000 was exactly what the yearling was knocked down to them at.

"Mark Smolenski broke him in for us and he was nothing special, just one of the pack. But every time he has gone off the place he has just improved that much. He is very solid, but I think his attitude would be his biggest asset. And he is a bit better-sized compared to Sonofthedon and The donsson, because they were both big horses."

Additional things that Purdon tried with Galleons Assassin include a course of Altitude Training and regular trips to the beach, both of which have aided the gelding's development. "He is one of the few that I take to the beach," he said. "Early on he was a bit inclined to touch or hitch in behind, that is why I knew the straight-line work would help him. He doesn't need to now though, because he is fool-proof."

Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 1Jun05