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FEATURE RACE COMMENT

 

YEAR: 2000

2000 HYDROFLOW FILLIES SERIES(FINAL)

By now, Tupelo Rose will be back home in Melbourne. On Saturday she was in Auckland, on Friday she was in Christchurch, winning the Hydroflow Fillies Series Final from Dancingonmoonlight and Caps Off at Addington, and on Monday trainer Ted Demmler was unsure whether she would havejust one more Oaks start this season or two.

"It all depends on her," he said. "She can have two, bu it has been a big season for her. She is not jaded. That's not the right word. But it is probably true to say that she has come back to the other fillies more than they have come up to her," he said.

Demmler blamed himself and his drive for the defeat of Tupelo Rose in the New Zealand Oaks the week before. "I was disappointed she got beaten in that race," he said. "If you get one on your back that is going well and if you get one or two niggling at you along the way, as happened in the Oaks, it makes you go a bit sooner than you would like to. On Friday night, the second and third horses both came off nice runs, but I felt at the end that my filly could have drawn away," he said.

Demmler said he was pleased with the manner in which Tupelo Rose had recovered from her Hydroflow win. "She has pulled up as if she hasn't been around. Her handler is more buggered than she is. She just loves racing, enjoys her work at home and has a wonderful constitution," he said. Demmler said he had no plans for her next season, but said the Inter-Dominions "and races like that" were out.

Demmler trains Tupelo Rose for Gordon Banks and Marc Hanover, of New York, and John Curtin, of New Zealand, who bought her from Andrew Gannell and partners for approximately $A300,000. "I haven't met her American owners," said Demmler,"but I was surprised Andrew sold her. Banks and Hanover, partners with George Shaw in the stallion Presidential Ball, were keen to align themselves with the industry while in New Zealand at Easter and told Curtin to "buy them the best filly." She has since raced six times for them, winning five and finishing a close second in the other.

"Marc and Gordon have heard ever race she has been in, and can't speak highly enough of Ted's professionalism and the way he operates," Curtin said. "They plan to leave her down here, and she will go to Presidential Ball eventually. Their plan is to re-invest down here, and they have made a great start," he said.

As it turned out, the three principals in the finish of the Oaks were the same three in the finish of the Hydroflow.


Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 17May00

 

YEAR: 2000

2000 PGG NZ YEARLING SALES SERIES 2YO (OPEN)

Some say luck has nothing to do with success; Wayne Ross begs to differ. Ross has continued to churn out champion after champion in recent years, but he shrugs off his success with these horses by saying luck has played a part in each of them. "I have just tried to reach a niche, and be regarded as a trainer of good young stock," he said.

Ross reached a pinnacle last year when he won 14 2-year-old races with his two fillies Tupelo Rose and Adios Dream, a feat which has never been achieved before. "The breed is the key," he says, adding that so is having owners that are prepared to buy into top bloodlines. "The spin off from having horses like Courage Under Fire and Tupelo Rose go through your stable is you end up being offered a better style of horse. And that is lucky," he said.

Ross might consider himself fortunate to be training his latest exciting juvenile Hero, but that eventuated moreso because of a good reputation than good fortune. Ross was at last year's Karaka Sales when his phone rang, and on the other end was a guy he had never met before called Bruno Papa. Papa wanted Ross's opinion of the In The Pocket-Alba Belle colt that was Lot 68, and Ross reported back that he looked like a nice type. After Hero went through the ring and was knocked down for $50,000, Ross received another call from Papa, who told him to take Hero home because he had bought him and wanted Ross to train the colt.

Now a gelding and raced in the name of Papa's wife Maria, Hero won his third race in five starts when leading from end to end in the $155,730 PGG Yearling Sales Series Open. An afterwards Ross used that 'luck' word again, saying that everything the 2-year-old wins this season is a bonus. "It is just his size," Ross continued. "At this stage he is like a big, overgrown kid and so unco-ordinated. He is a very proud horse though, and he holds himself very well. He has got a beautiful pacing action and that is why he looksl ike he is going in slow motion out there. He wears a 62-inch hopple, and that is big for a 2-year-old; I have never had a young horse go in a hopple that long before."

Ross has already had his share of 'fun' during Hero's brief career, with occasions like the gelding's debut at Motukarara when he lay down on the track still firmly etched in the memory. "He just didn't want to be there that day," Ross recalled. "But we had no option. I needed him to get some raceday form and he did that by finishing fourth. He won the Yearling Sales Graduate next start, but after that his blood was off and he pulled a flat tyre all the way in the Sires' Stakes heat at Addington. "He has been a bit difficult to train and a bit wayward, but all the time he is becoming more and more settled and more professional in his approach."

Ross believes Hero will let down into a magnificent individual in time. "I think he will be a good juvenile that ends up going all the way," he said. "He is not a natural 2-year-old, and lightly raced at three I think he will be an even better 4-year-old. He is dying to grow into his big frame, and after the Sires' Stakews Final he will be going out for a spell." The Ohoka horseman says this week's event will be an even harder task, with the draw once again playing a critical role. "Kevin (Townley, driver) said tonight was the best he has paced and the best he has driven yet. His blood still wasn't completely right either, so I think he will be even better again this week.

While only Bruno Papa was on-course to witness Hero's Yearling Sales Series victory, both he and Maria will be back again for this week's event. The couple manage a large cafe-type restaurant in Melbourne called The Fisherman's Bakehouse, which caters for over 200 people in a single sitting.

Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 10May00

 

YEAR: 2000

Trevor Casey, Colin DeFilippi & Bruce Negus with their trophy
2000 WAYNE FRANCIS MEMORIAL NZ OAKS

Bruce Negus and Colin De Filippi are mates. And like most friends, they have had the odd difference of opinion. Their most recent one was over Caps Off, and had it not been for De Filippi's insistance the filly could have won the $75,000 Wayne Francis Memorial New Zealand Oaks for someone other than owner Trevor Casey. "I told Trevor to sell her six weeks ago," Negus admitted. "This was before and after she won at Rangiora. Colin and I had a healthy debate; he believed she was getting better and should be given the chance to improve over the next couple of seasons. But she passed the vet and was all but sold to America - the only reason she stayed is because the money didn't come," Negus said.

De Filippi must have had a wry smile as he got the best out of Caps Off to down hot pot Tupelo Rose. It was yet another masterful drive by the Ladbrooks reinsman. With Shivna, Dancingonmoonlight, Pocket Queen and Ciccio Star drawn inside him there was no shortage of early speed, but after Shivna broke De Filippi managed to get Caps Off to the front and then waited for Tupelo Rose to come round and take over. From there the pair had the best seat in the house. Tupelo Rose stacked the field up and tried to outsprint her opposition; Caps Off was equal to the task and nabbed her illustrious rival in the shadows of the post after she ran out under pressure. "She's very fast out of the gate, if she needs to be," Negus continued. "But she's a frail little thing, and she's been a bit timid and a bit weak so we've been a bit scared to use that speed. Lately she has become stronger though and Colin and I have had more confidence that she can do things."

Despite being confident that Caps Off was improving, Negus said they never envisaged her beating such a quality field of fillies. "It wasn't expected," he said. "The run was fortuitous, but in saying that she is a very determined little cookie and she deserved the win. She can follow a hot pace all day. They have got home in 56.5 tonight but she stuck to her guns. Being by Caprock out of a Nero's B B mare she is all Nevele R bred too, so it was quite fitting that she should win a race named after Wayne Francis."

Bred by Nevele R's Danny Boyle, his brother-in-law Ross Stewart and Canterbury Jockey Club's C.E.O. Tim Mills, Caps Off was first sighted by Casey when she had a workout round Addington Raceway as a yearling in July, 1998. Pacing a mile in 2:08, home in 59.4 and 28.4, the co-proprietor of Inter-Island Horse Transport bought her on the spot. Despite another horse of his, Africa, finishing second in two Inter-Dominion Trotting Grand Finals, Caps Off gave him his biggest harness racing thrill.

"Trevor's been a very good owner for the industry, and me in particular," Negus said. "Caps Off has been a bit of a heartache for him. She's put both her back legs through the fence at different times, and she must have kicked at least half a dozen people without warning. She has won five of her 11 starts though, which is pretty good considering she has been unlucky several times or only 80% fit on other occasions. She is a bossy and fearless little thing around home, and can be a real mole. She will try to get other horses to communicate with her, and once they come near she'll swing round and lash out at them. Lately that mean streak seems to have disappeared, because she has taken on Thunder Atom as a paddock mate and seems to be a lot happier since."

Credit: John Robinson writing in NZHR Weekly



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