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FEATURE RACE COMMENT

 

YEAR: 2005

Not so long ago Tony Dickinson couldn't even give Heard A Whisper away, but today she is becoming a broodmare that money can't buy. Heard A Whisper has risen to fame through the deeds of her second foal, Alta Serena, brilliant winner of last Friday night's $100,000 George Calvert Cleaning Easter Cup at Addington in near record time.

The victory was Alta Serena's 17th from only 38 starts, and took her over $360,000 in stake earnings. As long as trainers 'Bunty' Hughes and John Green can keep her sound there should be a lot more where that came from, which is all quite in contrast to the fact that she is out of a mare that no-one wanted.

By Smooth Fella out of Tawhai Sandy, Heard A Whisper was bred by Dickinson and some friends to put through the Sales. But she cut a leg and had to be withdrawn, so they raced her themselves. "Heard A Whisper won two for us, then after we leased her to Chris Insley she won another one for him," Dickinson recalled. "She was a fast mare too, but she could only do it at one end."

It was about this time when Dickinson
decided to convert his passion for harness racing into a boutique operation and formed his own company, Alta Breeding Ltd. He bought out his partners in Heard A Whisper, bred three foals, and then tried to give the mare away. "Her first was a Soky's Atom filly (Whisper Atom), but she was so small I ended up selling her cheaply to Chris and she never raced - he is breeding from her though," Dickinson said. "Then I put Heard A Whisper to Fake Left (Alta Serena), because he was flying in Queensland at the time and I thought if he could do that sort of job in Australia over their mares he should be able to do just as well here. And the third one I bred was a Sands A Flyin, who was a magnificent colt but he contracted the Wobbler Syndrome and had to be put down."

Three foals down, only Alta Serena actually making it to the Sale ring and attracted just $4500 at that - it's no wonder Dickinson wanted Heard A Whisper's space in the barn to be taken up by something else. "I tried to get rid of her," he admits. "I advertised her in a couple of papers, even rang a couple of studs to see if I could swap her for a service. But there were no takers. In the end, Woodlands put her in foal to Lislea for me. Then when Alta Serena jumped out of the ground as 2-year-old, well, everyone wanted to know about her."



Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 13Apr06

 

YEAR: 2005

Lady Toddy lasts to beat Alta Serena
Lady Toddy was all but written off when she drew the cruel number nine marble in the $100,000 NZ Standardbred Breeders' Stakes sprint at Addington last Friday night.

It was a fair call, for neither of the two choices available to trainer Ken Barron made any appeal. One was to ease and go back and hope to hook a ride in the three-wide train over the last lap, or take the enormously risky gamble of pressing on from the start and slip in with cover. This wasn't going to be a drive for the faint-hearted, and Barron knew it and said it. "I told Rodney (O'Neill, the stable foreman) that I couldn't go back if I wanted a fair chance of winning."

Not many try this trick, and those who do it are usually remembered for going on a perilous journey that ends badly. Barron is not one of them. Within 400 metres, Barron had snuggled in to trail Tibetan Lass, on the outer. Coburg held the front, Imagine That had gone three-deep, favourites Armbro Innocence and Alta Serena had taken their only choice and stayed back, and Barron pinched himself to see if it was true.

Even with 1000 metres to run, the back markers had hardly moved, leaving Lady Toddy with a trip she has seldom had this season. She stayed under cover until just before the turn and, in her usual determined style, came out hard and strong. At one stage, halfway down the straight, she might have got a length on the other chances, and while that may have painted a pretty picture then, it started to look less than enough 50 metres out.

Wide on the track Alta Serena started to carve the margin back, slowly at first but with mighty chunks near the end. The post came just soon enough for Lady Toddy. Had it been a few metres more this may not have been the case, Alta Serena's effort was huge, Lady Toddy has long been an Addington favourite and deserved her win.



Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 9Feb05

 

YEAR: 2005

Armbro Innocence
Armbro Innocence owned by Mrs K L Butt & Enzed Farm won the 2005 running of the Pyne Gould Guiness Premier Mares Championship. She won by three quarters of a length from Alta Serena with a further neck back to Lady Toddy in third place. The winner was trained by Tim Butt and driven by Mark Jones.

Credit: Colin Steele NZMTC

 

YEAR: 2003

2003 NEVELE R FILLIES' SERIES FINAL

When Alta Serena was first broken in, it was thought that she would never even grace a racetrack. The filly had a real cantankerous nature, and co-trainer Brian Hughes says that is putting it mildly. "She was a real bitch, actually," he said. Alta Serena put on quite an act the first time she went to the races too, in March last year, pig rooting and playing up behind the mobile before running home late for fifth; oddly enough, that is the worst placing of the filly's career.

Nearly 14 months and 21 starts later, Alta Serena has now won 10 times, netted nearly $185,000 in stakemoney, and last Friday night she scored her biggest victory when taking out the Nevele R Fillies' Series Final brilliantly. The win was some recompense for her enormous effort in the NZ Oaks a week earlier, in which Alta Serena was relegated from third after her driver Frank Cooney was found guilty of causing interference on the home turn and copped a suspension.

David Butt was chosen as a replacement. Alta Serena's luck with the draw stayed bad when she drew 12, but of all the second-line draws she had the best of them because she was following out hot favourite Champagne Princess who was expected to punch out and lead from three over the 1950 metre trip. "Davey and I talked about that, but there was a chance she could have been caught wide early and get shuffled back so we decided to stay out of that," Hughes said.

Butt did his bit, getting Alta Serena into the three-wide line with cover, and when he asked the filly to stretch out at the top of the home straight she pounced like a tiger to win by half a length, shaving nearly a second and a half off the national fillies' record in the process. "She has got real explosive speed," said her co-trainer afterwards. "But she can sprint and stay, her run in the Oaks proved that. Alta Serena has been plagued by bad draws throughout her career, and she has done a lot of work in a lot of races where they have gone great times. She is very, very good, and very under-rated," Hughes added.

By Fake Left out of the Smooth Fella mare Heard A Whisper, Alta Serena was bred by Tony Dickinson's Alta Breeding Company Ltd and sold cheaply through the sale ring for $4000. Moira Green bought the filly on impulse, and races the 3-year-old in partnership with her son John and his wife Trish, John being Hughes' training partner as well. Moira was on-course at Addington for the Oaks, but last week she offered to look after her grandchildren back in Auckland while John tended to other members of the racing team at Alexandra Park, and Alta Serena provided her with the perfect birthday present.

Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 21May03



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