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It may not have been the NZ Cup as hoped, but White Arrow's 68-to-1 upset in Tuesday's $35,000 Firestone Direct FFA gave co-owner and trainer Wayne Higgs just as much satisfaction, and even more relief. "He has probably got more winning this race than what we could have logically hoped for in the Cup, but the biggest thrill is having him back to his best," said Higgs.

"He had that viral infection of the lungs last season, and sometimes they don't come back from those things. And I was starting to wonder whether he would come back from it at all. We were even starting to consider whether his future lied only in racing in America. But he turned the corner with his previous run, and the past week he has been as good as ever," he added.

Higgs took any number of positives from the result. White Arrow now has form for tomorrow's NZ Free-For-All and Higgs can now look beyond this week to the Grand Circuit again, but the satisfaction comes from getting White Arrow back to his best at home, having only had the one workout or trial this time in in September. "When a horse is not right in the lungs, it can take a long time to come right and trials only place undue stress on them. So it was best to bring him along in a controlled enviroment (at home) and get him properly fit with racing, without knocking him around too much."

White Arrow was not ready for a likely searching assignment in the Kaikoura Cup and Higgs had already given the NZ Cup away, not making the last payment, before he raced at Addington on November 3 where he got home almost as well as Flashing Red and Howard Bromac after being last at the half (55.5, 27.5) and finishing a little over three lengths from the winner.

"We reached a point where we could have busted his gut trying to get a Cup start, but it could have undone all the good work we have put in all year. We felt it was best to back off a bit and consider the best long term interests of the horse. It has only been the last week or two that he has been truly cleared to race by the vet. This is a genuine Grand Circuit horse, he is not going to be just a battler at that level."

The latter comment was hard to disagree with after White Arrow overcame the outside of the second line in the mobile 1950m to score in a 1:56.6 mile rate over Likmesiah and Badlands Bute, who were both on the ballot for the Cup. With Higgs free-wheeling in front with speedster Man With The Money, Todd Woodward was on the move from five-back on the outer a lap out; White Arrow took up the running passing the half and went on to fight off Badlands Bute on the outer and Likmesiah's late charge along the inner. "It was in nobody's best interests to try to keep White Arrow wide when he came around, and having burned early, it was only a matter of time before Man With The Money was going to run out of gas anyway."

For both Woodward and Higgs, who races White Arrow with his sister Elaine and Dunedin's Russell Nieper, it was their first wins on Cup Day. Nieper also races Highview Badlands and promising sorts in Radar Installed and trotter Sunshine Boy, all trained by Jim Curtin. "It's just great to have him back. He is the stable star and as long as he is going well, the rest can all be running last and you'd still feel like you're going okay."



Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 16Nov06

White Arrow & Wayne Higgs race toward the Nobilo

The day after winning the Nobilo, Wayne Higgs was taking time to think about it. White Arrow's surprise win in the Group 2 sprint has opened doors previously closed, and Higgs is set to go inside. "I'm pretty thrilled," he said. "We are talking the NZ Cup, the Auckland Cup, the Hunter Cup and the Inter-Dominions. And I'm just the man to travel."

White Arrow made full use of his inside draw and a trailing trip behind Flying Sands to work up the passing lane at Addington and take last week's feature off London Legend. Higgs thought the winning margin - a half-length - could have been more. "He was just winding up at the end because I had two or three goes at pulling the cord to take out his ear plugs. He is a long horse in the cart, and it took me thirty or forty metres before they came out. It is a wee thing we need to get sorted out," he said

Higgs has always championed the merits of White Arrow. This season he has been calling him "a monster," which in the context of what Higgs means is a horse who has come of age and could do something awesome. "I guess a lot of people might look upon him as another Borana or Smooth Dominion; it's up to him. But he is a very good stayer. He won the Nelson Cup by six of seven lengths, and when he won the Marlborough Cup he had a very tough trip and a speed duel, ran the 3000 metres in 4:05 and still kept giving. And while others might be better from the mobile, he has speed from a stand."

White Arrow, a 6-year-old bay by Sands A Flyin, has not had the smooth preparation Higgs had planned to give him but the wheels are back on now. "We missed a workout and the Avon City Cup when he got kicked and it was quite serious. We were chasing our tail after that, and he was down a bit after racing at Oamaru and then at Addington four days later. He didn't eat up the night after that, but he cleaned up after the Nobilo and is one happy horse."

If Higgs had one question going into the Nobilo it was how White Arrow would address the mobile start. "I was concerned because he had never won from a mobile before. But I was able to give him two laps at three-quarter pace for his preliminary. I could not have done that with him six months ago. From a training perspective, that was the winning of the race."

Credit: mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 10Oct05