YEAR: 2009 2009 CHRISTCHURCH CASINO NZ TROTTING CUP YEAR: 2008
Bailey Dream first one week, Monkey King the next. That has been the Easter efforts at Addington for the lethal Steven Reid-Ricky May-Benny Hill combination. They won the $150,000 George Calvert Cleaning Easter Cup at Addington last Friday night with Monkey King, Baileys Dream running a close third behind Classic Cullen after winning the lead-up race the week before, and the same Cup two years ago. It was May's fourth win from eight drives with Monkey King, and Reid said he will stay on the horse, he has won eight from 16 with Baileys Dream. After the race, Reid spent as much time in the Judicial Room as he had done on the track, firstly losing a charge of half-carting early in the race that cost him $300, then successfully explaining his reasons for not using the whip on Baileys Dream when it got tight near the end. "He doesn't appreciate it," explained Reid to the stewards. He clamps his tail, and if anything will go slower rather than quicker. It made no difference to the result, but as I take a whip they'd like to see me do something with it like having it under his tail or hitting the shaft." He'll get the chance because both Baileys Dream and Monkey King have two races ahead of them next month; at Addington on April 11, and a $50,000 one at Rangiora a fortnight later. Monkey King didn't make it easy for himself by missing the start by possibly as much as 30 metres, May saying he was put off by Awesome Armbro's behaviour ahead of him. He moved forward and got cover in the middle stages behind Classic Cullen and Baileys Dream, and bombed them both with his usual powerful pounce. He ran the 3200m in a sterling 4.01.8. Reid only needs Monecito to keep his record moving and he'll have three runners in next season's NZ Cup. But reinforcements are light on the ground after that, and his possibilities for the Harness Jewels will not keep him busy. "Ohoka Moon has not come up quite as good as I would have liked, but I'm confident Sno's Big Boy will be in well, and so will Montecito. I'm a bit luke-warm on Anescape; he might be a back-door entry. I know a bit about the Cambridge track, and draws for those races will be critical. But Anescape's got the potential to be an Open Class horse." Reid says his 2-year-olds and yearling numbers could mean a short-term gap in the ranks. "We've got five home-bred yearlings and bought four from the Sales, so all up there'll be nine. But we've got twenty-five foals on the ground, so there will be a lot of young horses to look forward to," he said. Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 2Apr08 YEAR: 2006 Regular driver Todd Mitchell remained in Hawera for the weekend circuit, missing the Cup drive behind the Steven Reid representative. In 25 career starts Mitchell had only missed three drives on Bailey's Dream, one of which was the New Zealand Free-For-All when he had sentimental commitments to two-time Cup winner Just An Excuse. On those occasions Brendon Hill had stepped up to the plate. Going into the Group One feature Bailey's Dream was one of four four-year-olds in the line-up. Elliot Futurity winner, and second favourite, Mr Bojangles ended his Easter Cup campaign as the tapes flew, galloping hopelessly on two occasions in the first 800m. The hot pot was once again Auckland Cup winner Mi Muchacho. He was forced to work hard three-wide for almost a lap to get to the front, and when pressured on the home turn showed his weakness yet again at Addington. Eventual winner Bailey's Dream flew inside the last 600m, crushing the favourite on the home turn before bolting away from his closest pursuers, Mighty Cullen and Imagine That. The Dream Away gelding secured victory by one length at the finish post, while game four-year-old Mighty Cullen sprinted from three-back on the fence for second. Last week's feature winner Imagine That rallied after securing the trail for third place behind her stablemate. The favourite Mi Muchacho battled into sixth equal and will return home without a South Island victory. Bailey's Dream paced the 3200m stand in 4.03.6, clocking a mile rate of 2.02.4. He paced his final 800m in 58.0. Trainer Steven Reid has indicated that the gelding will now target the Messenger Championship for four-year-olds at Alexandra Park on May 5. There the Easter Cup winner will once again face the country's leading pacer, Mainland Banner. Credit: Harness Racing NZ YEAR: 2006
Monkey King's performance to win on Friday night was nothing short of sensational, because he was last of the nine-horse bunch and being chirped up as he sped past the 600m mark. Driver Todd Mitchell waited, and waited, and it wasn't until Monkey King was fully around the home turn and straightened before his pilot pushed the turbo button. The response was electrifying, and Monkey King devoured metre after metre in time to catch Ambro The Thug just short of the post. His time for the 1950m event was a super 2:22.2 in the cool conditions, representing a mile rate of 1:57.3, and considering the last half was run in 58.1 off the front Monkey King must have covered his final stanza in close to 56! Mitchell paid the Sands A Flyin gelding the ultimate compliment when he returned to the stabling area... "For sheer speed, he's the quickest horse I have ever driven," Mitchell said. "He doesn't wear plugs or nothing. He's just that bloody relaxed, he doesn't really do anything until you pull him into the clear and ask him to go. They had gone that hard early tonight that I knew they had to come back to us - I still didn't think he could win from where he was though. And cripes, when I pulled him out at the top of the straight he nearly went into a gallop because he was going that fast. Bailey hasn't got speed like him." Monkey King has won five of his nine starts thus far, and Friday was a welcome return to the winner's circle for a horse whose finishing burst is now firmly entrenched as his trademark. He did the same thing on debut back in October when runing third, making up a tonne of ground behind Waipipi Express, then won four in a row, and in the outing prior to last week he took lengths off Awesome Armbro to run second after giving that rival a mighty head start turning for home and pacing his last half in 55.2. Monkey King's only other two outings resulted in an inglorious 'last of 13' when he failed to score up behind the mobile at Alexandra Park at the start of this month, and prior to that he ran fourth during what was a horror trip across the Tasman in January. "Over in Aussie he was a dead horse all week," Mitchell said. "We had a lot of trouble with him tying up in the muscles, and he just didn't feel like himself at any stage. It has taken a month to get him right, probably even longer." Monkey King is trained by Steven Reid, and his victory on Friday capped a stellar night for the Pukekohe stable. Reid trained the winners of the first two races at Alexandra Park - La Bella Mafia and Man On Mars - and in Mitchell's absence he made a rare appearence in the sulky and even drove the first of those himself. In charge of the team in Christchurch last week was Reid's right-hand-man Brendon Hill, and he took a lot of care when ungearing a very fractious Monkey King after the Flying Stakes victory. Asked if the 3-year-old was always like that, Hill replied "he is when he is right. When they are as good as him it's the sort of thing you don't mind putting up with though," Hill said. "It's just him. He's like Bailey - he's got heaps of character. And speed? He's got enough of it to make you fall out of the back of the cart." Now that the dust has settled on the Flying Stakes, the focus switches to this week's big one for the 3-year-olds - the NZ Derby. There is a glint in Mitchell's eye as he thinks about his prospects with Monkey King, and quite rightly so too, because the horse is right at the top of his game again and he proved last week tha he could win from anywhere. As much as Mitchell seems to have a mortgage on the biggest of Addington's feature races, the NZ Cup, having won four of the last seven, a NZ Derby winning drive is something that has eluded the talented Waikato reinsman so far. And that is despite fashioning a good record in the Flying Stakes too; Mitchell won the race in 2003 with Allstar Blue Jean, again last year with Bailey's Dream, and now has a 'three from the last four' record thanks to Monkey King. "I pulled the wrong rein with Allstar Blue Jean, and should have gone earlier; I ran sixth," Mitchell lamented. "Then Bailey got run down by Badlands Bute last year. It would be nice to win the Derby with Monkey King, because he's not paid up for anything else like the Sales Series or Sires' Stakes. He never showed enough early on." Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 29Mar06 YEAR: 2005 For a horse with 'bad' written all over him, Bad Leroy certainly went against his namesake by winning the $40,000 PGG Southern Graduate at Addington on Friday night. YEAR: 2004
He did so with a remarkable effort in which he twice fought off the attempts of Advance Attack to lead. Advance Attack was on the back foot and tiring on the corner, passed by his stablemate Mighty Cullen. Baileys Dream kept rolling and extended his lead down the straight to win in the manner of something special. "He beat Winforu in a workout at Pukekohe before he came down here," said driver Todd Mitchell. "I gave him two taps on the corner and he kicked again. He is the type of horse who can sustain his speed for a long time," he said. Baileys Dream is a first-season son of the Woodland Stud-based stallion Dream Away, by Artsplace, and cost Robert Fumularo $40,000 as a yearling. Bought for him by leading trainer Steven Reid, Baileys Dream is a half-brother to Cup class mare Black Eyed Bailey. They are from the Smooth Fella mare Black Eyed Susan, who went five years without a foal between leaving OK Bailey in 1996 and Baileys Dream. She is also the dam of a yearling colt by Christian Cullen and was served last season by Pacific Rocket. Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 12May04 YEAR: 2011 There was a bonus of dramatic proportions for those lucky enough to be at Addington on the loveliest of Autumn days last Saturday. They saw the wickedly talented Carabella wave goodbye to 12 others in the Nevele R Fillies Final, they again watched Flying Isa dominate the trotting 2-year-olds and record his fourth successive win, but none came with the back-of-the-bunch brilliance that catapulted Western Cullen to a dashing win in the PGG Wrightson Sales Series Open Division Final. But in reality that was no more than a stunning sideshow. The main act came from two 3-year-olds in the Group 2 Vero Flying Stakes, usually the warm-up to the New Zealand Derby. It was a surprise to get a finish this good, but Gold Ace and Terror To Love made the race an unforgettable exhibition of spirited comptition. They started the home run with Gold Ace moving powerfully past the others, the hunting Terror To Love clearing his back to challenge on the right. They ran past the empty public grandstand where 20 years ago young and old would have paid for the privilege of seeing a fascinating tussle between the pair. The bay horse, closer to black than brown, soon narrowed the gap and levelled. Gold Ace was ready for him, rallied, and fought him long and hard. That was just when it seemed Terror To Love had managed to get the better of him. By now the heat of the battle had less than a second to run. Gold Ace had it...then he might've. And soon doubt. Terror To Love had pushed right on the line. Close? This was a measure in millimetres. No-one knew it moreso than Mark McNamara, who in the commentary box gamely went for a dead-heat. These are cheeky calls, but heroic when they come off. This one did. Unseperable. Two truly great horses sharing the triumph. Peter Ferguson, the driver of Gold Ace, used a comfortable cliché when he said it was "great for racing". And that was the truth of it. Jim Curtin eased Terror To Love in the early rush to find the back of Gold Ace. Ferguson was out well and tracked along with the trail on the outer. Curtin was poised to pounce. Gold Ace had the advantage of being in front, Terror To Love the challenge of getting past. "The race was always set up by what they did in the Derby," said Ferguson. He agreed that Terror To Love headed Gold Ace. "I always knew he was there, right behind us. And when he went past, I thought we would run a nice second. Then, inside the last fifty metres, I felt him lift. It was going to be close. And even when it's very close you usually have half an idea who has won, but this time I had none, and neither did Jimmy." Curtin thought the same. "I hope I'd got past him, and I thought I was going to beat him, but horses like that are just so hard to get past." The pair will meet again in the Harness Jewels at Ashburton where both want front line draws and will run smart time if they do. Gold Ace, another siring triumph for Bettor's Delight, had missed at least five days work with a leg injury after his NZ Derby win. Trainer Steven Reid was concerned that any longer would have made him worried, but the recovery happened in good time. The result was one of those occasions that made an Autumn day at Addington one to treasure. Thanks to Terror To Love and Gold Ace, there's no doubt about that. Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 18 May 2011 YEAR: 2011 Steven Reid has never thought of himself as superstitious. But when it comes to his horse Gold Ace, all the signs suggest he's wrong. Take an occasion back in early February for example. reid was across the Tasman compaigning Gold Ace in the Victorian Derby Series at Melton's Tabcorp Park. On the day of the Final, he and his wife Wendy entered one of the malls in Melbourne looking for a spot to stop for lunch when all of a sudden they came across a big, bold billboard advertising the 'Sushi Sushi' chain of food outlets. Reid says it stood out like a beacon, and right then and there he got the premonition that a horse with the same name would triumph that night. His hunch came true. Fast forward to last Saturday, and Reid awoke from an early afternoon snooze on the couch of his Addington motel to hear the last few seconds of a galloping event at Riverton beaming from the television. "...and Hill Of Gold is going to run away and score..." went the dulcet tones of commentator Dave McDonald. 'Hey', he thought at the time, 'that's the same name as the mother of our bloke - that has to be an omen for tonight'. Not wanting to tempt fate before the race, Reid only told a select few about what he hoped would be an uncanny coincidence. As the field for the $200,000 Southern Demolition & Salvage NZ Derby took their positions behind the mobile, Reid glanced across the track at the semaphore board to see Gold Ace had closed at $5.80 on the tote. Knowing that the Bettor's Delight colt was over a respiratory infection that caused him to run a below-par sixth in Sushi Sushi's Victorian Derby Final - the same health scare that saw him also struggle into sixth a month later in the Northern Derby Prelude once back home, forcing his withdrawal from the Alexandra Park Final - the Pukekohe trainer regretted not opening his wallet, if only for a split second. "I was very confident," he said. "But I only said it privately to a couple of people. I've never backed him yet, not once - not even when he won at Cambridge and paid thirteens. So I didn't want to start changing things now." Superstition or not, Reid got the result he longed for when Gold Ace won his home stretch battle with the favourite Terror To Love and edged clear near the line. The latter had gotten to the lead early from a similar second-row draw, while Gold Ace and driver Peter Ferguson dodged trouble at the start and joined the three-wide train starting the last lap, ranging up outside him before the 800m pole. "The first part of the race definitely panned out well for us," Reid said, referring to the early gallop of Empyrean which checked Major Mark and saw the Purdon/Payne runner stuck wide without cover for the last half. Had that not happened, it definitely would've been a three-way slog up the home straight." Prior to this season, Reid had never trained the winner of a 3YO Sires' Stakes Final or NZ Deby; now Gold Ace has given him both. "I've run second in the race twice," he said, remembering Monkey King's nose defeat to Pay Me Christian in 2006 and Bailey's Dream going under by a length to Badlands Bute a year earlier. What makes it more special is having my wife and our kids Matthew (18) and Isabella (13) here tonight, because they haven't all been down since I ran second with Monkey in the NZ Cup. But just having this horse right again is a big buzz as well. When we arrived tonight h was pushing Simon (McMullan) all over the place and half-pie trying to take off, yet when we put him in his stall he went to sleep." Following the $40,000 Group 2 Flying Stakes and the Harness Jewels Emerald in early June, Reid says he'll more than likely take Gold Ace across the Tasman for the Breeders' Crown and then give him a "massive break" - leaving his 4-year-old resumption as late as 2012. "This horse's improvement between two and three has been immense. At two he was a notch below the good ones but at three he's lifted to what is possibly the best. Don't get me wrong, I think Terror To Love is a great horse - and because the two remaining races they'll meet in are sprints, it's going to come down to the draws. If Terror To Love draws well and we don't, we probably can't beat him. And Vice Versa if it's the other way round. What would make it interesting is if we both draw bad." Another hunch? Only time will tell... Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 28Apr2011 |