Race callers’ Cream firmly on the rise
You’ve heard of a race caller’s nightmare. How about a racecaller’s dream?
Enter the Kembla Provincial Championship Qualifier participant Cream Rises, whose merry band of owners includes not one, not two but three race callers – namely Darren Flindell, Dale Walker and Anthony Manton.
Manton, when not behind the binoculars, is the founder and frontman for Patriot Bloodstock, whose business model is to buy cheap and win big. Cream Rises, like Tuesday’s Scone winner and instant Country Championship conProvincial tender Sting Jet, were added to the Patriot Bloodstock portfolio for a fraction of what people pay for yearlings.
“I paid $26,000 for Cream Rises and about $30,000 for Sting Jet and at the moment we’re sitting on two horses that we paid very little money for that are now eligible for the Championship Series and the Country Championship series,” Manton said.
“This is what we set out to do, to buy affordable horses and get people involved and have them in series’ for as little investment as a five or 10 per cent owner.
“We don’t have big numbers compared to the other syndicators, we are only at 25 horses so to have a runner in both the Provincial and Country Championships would be great.”
One-time boom galloper Cream Rises has already paid back his purchase price in the space of just three starts in the Patriot Bloodstock silks.
“Cream Rises was a six-yearold when we bought him, if he was three or four, he would have brought five times what we paid for him,” said Manton.
“He has been a good buy at the right time to be eligible for the Provincial series. He has also qualified for the Big Dance by running second in the Bega Cup so we’ve got that to look forward to later on in the year.”
There is one slight sour note to the Cream Rises story and it’s his barrier in Thursday’s hotly contested Qualifier.
Despite Mitchell Beer’s newfound status as a local, Cream Rises has been allocated barrier 14 in the $150,000 feature.
“The wide gate makes it a little bit tricky,” Manton said.