| FEATURE RACE COMMENT |
YEAR: 2010
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Nearea Franco is about to become a mum, but you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her. That's because her McArdle baby was transferred to a surrogate mare, who's due to foal sometime soon. And Nearea Franco celebrated her pending parenthood in the best possible fashion when she won the $40,000 Group 3 Firestone Free-For-All at Addington on Cup Day.
The mare's trainer Steven McRae described her return to form as "a long hard battle", but to see the Nearea Franco of old turn up and win as she liked on Tuesday, it's a war that McRae's obviously winning. The staff at Spreydon Lodge have had to climb not one but two mountains over the last 12 months as they strived to get their stable star back...first there was the cracked pastern she was diagnosed with just before the big mares' races in January this year, then in late August she developed what McRae says was a "pipe corn" in her near-side front hoof.
"The pastern problem had been niggling her for a long time, so it was good to finally diagnose what was troubling her and fix it," he said. "Craig Thornley always maintained that she'd never felt as good as she did when she won the Jewels back in May 2008; when the pressure went on, she didn't respond. So we knew there had to be something wrong with her. For a big horse she's got a lot of speed, but she hadn't shown it for a long time."
Safely through her recovery from the operation where screws were inserted, McRae then plotted a course for the New Zealand Cup and had Nearea Franco at the trialling stage by the start of the season. "It was after she trialled in late August that she developed the corn," he said. "And it took a long time to dig it out; Derek Jones and Grant Nyhan deserve a lot of credit for all the work they did with her. We lost three weeks because of it, though. The NZ Cup had been the main aim ever since the start of the season, because we missed away in it last year and never had a chance. But I've got too much respect for the race and the others in it to line up with just one run under her belt."
That one run was at Kaikoura in their Cup, a race which she'd won last year, and her eighth mightn't have looked any good on paper but McRae took a lot of heart from the performance. "I was rapt with her run up there. She couldn't get around the last bend, and lost momentum. Then after she got balanced and came again she got squeezed up and galloped near the post. So the run was better than it looked. The bends didn't worry her the previous year because she was in front and close to the marker pegs."
McRae confirms that the 'r' word (retirement) did come up for dicussion while Nearea Franco's career was delayed by setbacks, and it basically came down to her being given 'one more chance'. "When they took her embryo out it was about a week before she was diagnosed with the cracked pastern, so if it'd happened seven days earlier she probably would've been retired there and then. It's funny how things happen like that."
"I reackon she's as good as we've ever had her, this season. She's a happy horse, and doesn't shake all the time she's at the races anymore, and she never used to be able to hold condition either but she's really big and strong now. Probably all of that relates to the niggly pastern problem she had."
Initially McRae wasn't going to line up in Friday's Free-For-All, but post-race on Tuesday he was still toying with the idea. "I thought that three runs in ten days might've been a bit tough this early in the season, but she didn't have a hard run today and seemed to win it pretty easy so we'll keep our options open," he said.
"She'll still be served again sometime in December, and all going well will race right through to the Inter-Dominions. She's definitely going to be a hard horse to replace. It's great for the staff to have a nice horse at the races, because they get a big kick out of it. We've all enjoyed the ride though, and it's something you never take for granted either because you never know when it's going to end."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 11Nov2010
YEAR: 2008
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Steve McRae warned she was good. And he was right, we just hadn't seen the full extent of Jumanji Franco's talent until she won the $30,000 NRM NZ 2YO Trotting Stakes at Addington last Friday night.
Despite working hard from a wide marble to eventually hit the front, Jumanji Franco had plenty in reserve when the challengers came calling at the end, needing little more than a chirp up from driver Craig Thornley to score by a length and a half. It was the third outing and first victory for the daughter of CR Commando, and afterwards Thornley paid tribute to McRae for getting her to peak at the most important stage of the season. "Steve's timed her preparation to perfection - just like he did with Jacanti Franco," Thornley said, referring to this time last year when Jumanji Franco's year older half-sister took out the NRM Sires' Stakes 2yo Trotters Championship at start number two.
That event is this Saturday, and now the pair's dam Jaguar Franco has a very real chance of a noteworthy back-to-back double. "Her blood wasn't right during the week, so if anything she should improve," Thornley claimed. "She's got a lovely way of going, this filly. And it's better when they eyeball her, because she concentrates then; otherwise she's looking all round the place."
McRae hasn't trained many trotters in his time, and after the "freakish ability" Jacanti Franco showed he thought he'd never get another one as good. Seems he was wrong about that, but he's not complaining. "Jumanji's a completely different type to Jacanti," McRae said, meaning not only their builds. "Jacanti had a few tricks, and didn't like the grit in her face for a start. But Jumanji's never galloped at home in her life. The best thing about Jumanji is probably her gait. She's very light on her feet, and everything's very effortless to her. You'd hardly get excited about her in training, because she just flops about on a loose rein - but she's a real professional," he said.
The dogs were barking about Jumanji Franco at a very early stage though, and the filly was sold for a six-figure sum to Victorian enthusiast Peter Chambers before she'd even qualified. "That's how much we thought of her," McRae said. "I've never met the guy actually. He's a mate of Ted Demmler's, and that's where Jumanji will be heading after the Jewels. It'll be a shame to loose her, but that's the nature of our business I suppose; it's happened before, and it'll happen again." McRae says that with the Jewels these days its a big enough season for baby trotters, and given a decent three to four-month spell after Cambridge Jumanji Franco should come back "a really nice horse at three".
As for Jacanti Franco, who's by Continentalman, she's all but recovered from her tendon injury and should be back in work towards the end of June. "Hopefully she'll resume sometime in Spring. We'll see if we can make up for lost time, and win some stakes so we can target the Jewels with her next year," McRae said.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 7May08
YEAR: 2011
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| De Lovely (inner) beating Nearea Franco |
Red-hot favourites usually win by more than a pencil line. So De Lovely gave those who backed her into $1.20 plenty of reasons to panic as she scraped home by the barest of margins at Addington on Friday night.
But don't blame De Lovely - point the finger at Nearea Franco, because she and Craig Thornley did such a sterling job of pacemaking in the $80,000 Group 1 PGG Wrightson NZ Breeders Stakes that they almost stole the unstealable. After all, just under a week earlier De Lovely had zoomed past the winner of our last two New Zealand Cups and won under a hold by nearly two lengths. Six days later she needed a good couple of cuts with the whip from David Butcher to nab Nearea Franco on the line. And only just got there.
The two great mares were clearly superior to their eight other rivals, proved in no uncertain terms by the seven and a half length margin back to Lancome in third place after torrid final sectionals of 56.2 and 27.5. But for De Lovely it'll go down as another victory in her brilliant career, the 15th time she's saluted in 24 appearances, good for nearly $650,000 in stakes for the Les Girls No.2 Syndicate who bred and race the 4-year-old daughter of Falcon Seelster and Copper Beach.
De Lovely's only defeat in 12 starts since May last year came in the Group 2 Premier Mares Championship on January 21, her third to Beaudiene Bad Babe that night denying her the chance to join Kiwi Ingenuity(2009), It's Ella(2007), Mainland Banner(2006), Coburg(2004), Kym's Girl(2000), Lento(1996), Blossom Lady(1993 & 1991), Gina Rosa(1989) and Bionic Chance(1988) on the coveted list of those who have won the two big Addington mares' features in the same season.
Credit: John Rpbinson writing in HRWeekly 16Feb 2011