| FEATURE RACE COMMENT |
YEAR: 2006
 |
| Out in front & lonely...Western Dream |
Starting from the outside of the second row, Western Dream gave them all a start, looped the field, sat parked, and ran away to win by an ever-increasing five and a half lengths. It was a far more dominant display than the Badlands Hanover filly's Nevele R Series Final win a week earlier, which trainer/ driver Tony Herlihy got an inkling about from the moment he started to warm her up. "Even in the prelim she felt like she had improved from the week before," Herlihy said. "Mark (Purdon) had said she had been jumping out of her skin at his place, and like all good athletes she had really tightened up."
Western Dream headed home with Herlihy after her victory, as there are more goals in store for the remainder of the season yet. "We are going to go across for the Victorian Oaks and the Breeders' Crown," he continued. "It has been the plan right along to just take it from race to race, but she seems to have come through her trip south really great so we may as well go when you are racing for that sort of money."
Money isn't something that Western Dream has ever had any difficulty earning, because after Friday's victory she has now won 13 and tallied a whopping $325,480 in stakes for her breeder/owners Vin and Daphne Devery. Like the programming decisions that concern the filly, Herlihy and the Deverys have also shared the training duties throughout Western Dream's career as well, Devery having his name alongside hers in the racebook five times and Herlihy the other 12.
Their association goes back many years, and one of the first horses Herlihy ever drove for the couple was Western Dream's dam Dreamy Atom, steering her to victory in the last of her six wins, the 1994/95 NZ Sires' Stakes Fillies Championship. "I am just really grateful that Vin and Daph decided to place her with me," Herlihy said, humbly. "It's great to have horses like her in the stable, and when they kick on from the ability they showed as a young horse like she has." So is Western Dream anything like her mother? "No, not really," Herlihy answered. "Dreamy Atom was a smaller, stockier mare, whereas Western Dream is not. She was actually quite rangy as a 2-year-old, but she has strengthened up now though."
Following her sojourn across the Tasman, Western Dream will be spelled and return sometime around Christmas. Like every year when there is a standout 3-year-old filly, it will then be a question of how well she will come back the following season. "She is the type that will stay as good," Herlihy said. "Sometimes you know if good youngsters aren't going to get much better, but she has always had the scope to suggest that she will improve a lot. And I have always thought she has got a lot of stamina. I know the overall time the other night wasn't flash, but I think her effort proves that to a degree."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 24May06
YEAR: 2006
 |
Alinghi ran up boldly before the corner and looked a worry for a time. But other than that flurry, there was nothing of matter for the final 15 seconds except the gap to second, and if Alinghi would hold it - which she did not.
Dreamy Atom has been a gem for Devery and his wife, Daphne. The Soky's Atom mare won six races and was 2-year-old Filly of the Year in 1998. As a broodmare, she has been a source of good income, having left Happy Dreamer which was sold to the U.S. after two starts here; Dream Royale, which won her 13th race at the weekend in Queensland; the Tim Butt trained middle-grader Presidential Dream, and Western Dream, the best of them all. She has raced only 16 times, and won 12. Her stakes are more than $260,000, and there is fair expectation it will be close to $300,000 with another high placing in the Oaks on Friday night. The Devery's have one more from Dreamy Atom to come, a filly by Artiscape, which is being weaned anytime soon.
The Artiscape is one of only two foals they bred this season. The other is a Julius Caesar colt from a Smooth Fella mare; two others died soon after foaling. To supplement numbers, a Badlands Hanover-No Time Franco filly was bought at this year's PGG Wrightson Sale.
There is still much ahead of Western Dream. She will contest the Australian Oaks in late July, and she has the Breeders' Crown heats and, in mid August, the Final. "We plan to give her a spring spell and bring her back for the mares' races in late summer and autumn," said Vin. He recalled that his success has come a long way since the time he raced the Johnny Globe mare Facetious with his brothers, Alan and Ray. "She won four of five, and it the fourth grandam of Western Dream," he said.
Western Dream is three short of equalling the number of wins by the Devery's former star, Honkin Vision. "He won fifteen, And every Cup Week when we come up, we call in and see him on the way home. We always look forward to that," he said.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 17May06
YEAR: 2009
 |
It was a double dose of Group 1 success for Lauraella at Addington this month. A week after winning the Nevele R Fillies Final, in which it was said she was short of her best, Lauraella ran off with the $150,000 Nevele R - Wayne Francis Memorial Oaks. There was a late flurry for second and third, with Alexis arriving just in time to peg back Imagine Me and Arden's Darlin was a clear fourth.
David Butcher gave Lauraella time to settle, midfield on the outer, and he sent her up with cover and made the lead comfortably at the 1600m. Events unfolded pretty much as expected from there, with little change until the second tier of favourites emerged in the run home to sort out the minors.
Lauraella, by Christian Cullen, has the probability of a repeat win in the Harness Jewels in less than a fortnight, and the possibility of the Breeders Crown after that. Sandy Yarndley, on behalf of the Hardwood Breeding Syndicate, says there has been no commitment to anything after the Jewels, but he knows there is nothing of importance for the 4-year-old mares until much later in the season.
Trainer Geoff Small is also cautious about thinking any further than the Jewels. "It's a long season for 3-year-old fillies, if you go to the Crown, but they do get a break after that." Small has done it before, winning three Oaks and the Crown with Pullover Brown, the only filly who could match what Laurella has done.
The double won by Lauraella has also been achieved by One Dream, Western Dream, Kate's First, Under Cover Lover, Robyn's Treasure, Tigerish and Smooth Performer in the last 25 years.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HR Weekly 20 May 09
YEAR: 2011
 |
Western Cullen, a Sales buy-back and later sold privately in the Spring to the Poli brothers, Paul and Tony, from Perth, won the $250,000 PGG Wrightson NZ Yearling Sales Series 2YO Open from a tough Texican on Stauday.
Blair Orange gave him a tonne of time to settle from the second line while Orl Black sped out and ran hard. After being parked, Texican went past and gallantly established a break. In the meantime, Western Cullen had come from a cover in midfield, and was unleashing a torrid sprint. He swept past to win in dashing style, with Texican unchallenged by the trailing Franco Hemmingway for second.
Western Cullen is the first foal from the outstanding juvenile Western Dream - by Badlands Hanover and the winner of $336,361 - and he was taken home by his breeder Vin Devery when bidding in the ring stopped at $37,500. "We weren't even square at that," he said. "I knew he was a nice horse, but at that stage of his development he was not as well put together as some of the other Cullens were," he said. It didn't take long before the colt made the right steps. "He did progress well, and after he qualified I turned him out," said Devery.
Through the work of a local agent and Western Australian trainer Ross Oliveiri, Western Cullen was sold and joined the team of Mark Purdon and Grant Payne after his spell.
Western Dream is in foal to Mach Three after missing to him last season.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 18May2011