| FEATURE RACE COMMENT |
YEAR: 2010
 |
Trevor Proctor and his partner Diane Dynes enjoyed their greatest moment in harness racing when Tact Lizzie romped away with the $80,000 PGG Wrightson NZ Breeders Stakes at Addington last Friday night.
Tact Lizzie didn't just get a suck along behind the pace, sneak up the passing lane and fall in to win by a nose - which you would almost expect when such a time-honoured Group 1 event was won by a $64 outsider. No. She started from the outside of the second row, looped the field with 1000 metres to go, and literally ran her opposition into the ground!
And the icing on the cake? Her winning time of 3 09.4, which represented a stunning mile rate of 1 57.2 for the 2600m mobile and even wiped a name like Mainland Banner from the record books in the process. Moments don't get much better than that. "This is our biggest thrill by a long shot," Proctor said afterwards, "I'm still shaking."
Friday's field probably wasn't the greatest Breeders Stakes line-up possible, with top mares like Kiwi Ingenuity, Lauraella and Special Ops all absent for one reason or another, but any thoughts of the event being 'easier' to win this year soon went out the window when Tact Lizzie drew saddlecloth 14. Even Proctor was almost conceding defeat as he found a spot in the stand. "Pretty much," he said. "From there (14) we'd have been pleased if she finished in the top half of the field, and thought that if she even ran a place it would have been more than what we could ask for."
Tact Lizzie had other ideas, and forever etched her name onto one of Addington's most sought-after trophies for the mares. Proctor admits that it took him a long time to work out a training regime that suits the now 10-win mare, and it is one that goes against the grain. "Hard work," he says. "You hate doing it, but it's just how she is - she loves it. And you can't give her much time off either, because she tends to tie up real bad."
Tact Lizzie is a 5-year-old daughter of Christian Cullen and the New York Motoring mare Tact Hayley. She was bred by Diane's father the late Derek Dynes, and belongs to his tough old Southland breed that has sent forth numerous good horses over the decades. After Derek's passing a couple of years ago, Tact Lizzie is now raced by Diane's mother Bessie.
Proctor has been involved in the sport ever since he moved from Invercargill to Winton in the early 1990's, and worked for Derek initially. "I'm a painter and decoratorby trade - training's just a part-time thing for me," he said. "We've only got the two racehorses; her and Tact Aunty, plus a couple of 3-year-old fillies who qualified recently."
Tact Aunty is the same age as Tact Lizzie, is also by Christian Cullen, and being out of Flash Tactics she belongs to the same family; he and Tact Lizzie have the same fifth dam, Tactics. Flash Tactics was more than capable on the track herself, winning eight times from Derek's stable and finishing in the money behind Flight South (third, NZ Premier Mares' Championship) and Kym's Girl (second, NZ Standardbred Breeders' Stakes) this time nine years ago.
The Premier Mares' Championship tomorrow (Thursday)at Addington is where Tact Lizzie could head next, although Proctor is going to leave making the decision about starting until after he gave her a jog on Sunday. "The 1950 metres probably won't suit her, she's more of a distance horse," he said. "She doesn't give you a great turn of foot, but she does cover the groud deceptively well. And she could be in foal, too. We got her served by McArdle before she came up to stay here at Laurence Hanrahan's, and the vet says she feels like it but he couldn't find the embryo on her scan."
Friday's stunning victory was also the pinnacle to date in the career of driver Stephen McNally.
Tact Lizzie's regular pilot Jonny Cox couldn't get a flight to Christchurch later than 2.00pm that afternoon, and was already committed to six drives at Winton where he thought he had one or two good chances, so Hanrahan went looking for a replacement.
"Laurence rung me last night, and I jumped at the chance," McNally said, adding that the only other time he had sat behind the mare was in last year's Hororata Cup when she missed away. "Driving in races like this is always more of a thrill than normally, because they're Group 1s and go down in the history books - and you're up against nice horses. I knew we were going fast out there, but it didn't quite feel like 3.09. It was a nice wedding present," he said.
McNally will marry his fiancée Rebecca Odering at a chapel in Prebbleton this Saturday, in front of some 200 guests. He and Rebecca have just built a house on the Motukarara property of his parents, opposite the racecourse, and with 10 in work he has got a nice number of horses around him plus he has kept busy doing farrier work as well. "Dad's working for me now."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 17Feb10
YEAR: 2001
 |
Colin De Filippi had been thinking about it all week. Thinking about how he was going to turn the tables on Flight South. After all, he and his wife Julie had lined Kym's Girl up in the NZ Premier Mares Championship knowing she was at the top of her game; they didn't expect to win, but they did not expect her to get beaten the way she did either. Fully respecting that Kym's Girl only deserved second prize that night, De Filippi wanted a different result in the Caduceus Club of Canterbury NZ Standardbred Breeders Stakes.
The first part of the plan fell into place when Kym's Girl drew two and Flight South five, but he kept quiet about how he was going to play it on the night and even those closest to him did not know. In the end, history will show it to be just another classic 'CJ' drive. Flash Tactics and Ricky May speared away from their 'ace' draw so quickly that it gave De Filippi and Kym's Girl all three options...Take a trail, sit parked and wait for cover, or push forward. When nothing came around De Filippi opted for the latter, probably smiling that he had not needed to use too much petrol getting there. From in front the race was theirs for the controlling, and when De Filippi took a sneaky peek around with 800 metres to run he could see he had Flight South right where he wanted her - last. A furlong later Flight South was inching forward ominously with cover like she had done the previous week, but De Filippi still had a handful of his own mare and wasn't going to be outsprinted this time. He asked Kym's Girl to go rounding the home bend and they stole the show; last half in 56.6, quarter in 27.4, I'll take this one thanks. "The race was always going to come down to a battle of tactics, especially when it dropped down to a nine horse field," De Filippi said afterwards.
It was Bill Denton, the stable's most respected employee, that planted the seed in his son-in-law's mind about taking Kym's Girl to the front, because he had driven the mare that way in lead-up work and said she had felt good being there. "She had been tried that way in races before without much success, but she is stronger this season and we have been trying to teach her to find the line," De Filippi said.
Apart from co-training the fourth mare in history to win back-to-back Breeders Stakes, joining Lento (1995,1996), Blossom Lady (1991,1992,1993)and Bonnie's Chance (1982,1983,1984), De Filippi also had the satisfaction of proving a point about his mare's ability after finishing second the previous week. "I heard someone say this year's Breeders Stakes field was weaker than past years, but when you have got an Auckland Cup winner, a Hannon Memorial winner and a previous winner of the event it can't be all that weak. Kym's Girl would definitely rate up with the best mares I have driven; horses like Idolmite, Quiet Touch and Adio Routine," he said.
Kym's Girl was entrusted to the De Filippi stable by her owners David Miller, Bill Marra and Graeme Trist. She developed unsoundness in a hoof following her game run for third in last years' NZ Cup, and it was thought that having access to a pool would help her training and she has responded well to it. Kym's Girl will start once more before the Easter Cup, after which she will have a spell and be aimed again at the NZ Cup.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 21Mar01