| FEATURE RACE COMMENT |
YEAR: 1990
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| The Cleine family pose with Gypsy Winkle after the Oaks |
Before a small crowd on a cold Saturday night, Gypsy Winkle lowered the colours of hot favourite Jiffy's Girl in the $50,000 Nevele R Stud New Zealand Oaks.
Going for win number 13, Jiffy's Girl ran too keenly for her own good, especially passing the 800 metres and again when slipping clear near the corner. In spite of that, the tiny rich bay daughter of Jiffy Boy looked quite strong beginning the run in and still a winning prospect 100 metres out. The complexion of the race then began to change with alarming suddeness and major worries for the followers of the favourite came seconds later as Gypsy Winkle emerged on a finish she had started with determination some way out.
She was handled with 'big-race' skill by Colin De Filippi, who displayed equal determination in getting the better of Jiffy's Girl. For no other reason than poor luck in the running, Gypsy Winkle had failed in her three previous starts, and because of that was at rather long odds. But a workout in the mud four carts out on the Westport track in 4:24 convinced trainer Colin Cleine she was as good as he could get her. "It's pretty difficult knowing just how well they are when you have got little to work them with. That is why she has to race, and we get a line on her that way," he said.
Gypsy Winkle is the second successive Oaks winner sired by the stud's ill-fated sire Nero's B B - Adina Bebe was last year's winner - and it provided breeders, the Alexandra Breeding Partnership, with a $100,000 breeder's bonus.
Cleine, a Westport dairy farmer, bought the filly from the Australian bred mare Gay Van Winkle (Gay Reveler-Thelma Lass, by Pacing Gift) at the National Yearling Sales for $4,000. She won her first two races last July, and the Southland Oaks, but couldn't make Friday night's DB Draught Fillies Final after attempting to do so in three heats. Colin, and his wife Yvonne, bought a Nero's B B-Nile Queen filly at PGG's Premier Sale earlier this year. They have three other young horses, including a Bo Scots Blue Chip half brother to Gypsy Winkle who is making encouraging progress.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HR Weekly