Former shearer’s big Cup win
Roger That stuns racing world and upsets favourites at $40 to win at Ellerslie
Aformer sheep shearer from Tauranga has stunned the New Zealand horse racing industry with the biggest win of his life in the $500,000 Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup.
Antony Fuller, who trains horses on his Bay of Plenty farm, produced veteran galloper Roger That, ridden by Samantha Collett, to upset the favourites at $40 to win.
On a race day where the glamour Te Akau stable of Jamie Richards won two of the huge group one races, Fuller, from the other end of the training spectrum, took out the richest prize.
The 59-year-old farmer has mostly trained just three or four horses, but that has grown to 12 in the past few years. “I had to give up the sheep shearing and take the racing more serious,” laughed Fuller.
Roger That does much of his work in a paddock on the farm, Fuller saying he knows its dimensions so well he doesn’t need a proper track.
“And he is a really lovely horse. He loves what he does.”
Roger That cost just $4000 as a young horse and added $300,000 to his career stakes as he held off Sound and Platinum Invador in New Zealand’s biggest staying race.
Straight after the 3200m win, racing officials invited Fuller to take Roger That to the Sydney Cup but he won’t be getting carried away.
“We will stay here, race in some of the good races of the winter and come back and try to win this again next year.”
Yesterday’s meeting was the culmination of Auckland racing’s huge summer racing season, and ARC chief executive Paul Wilcox suggested it was one of their best-ever seasons. “We have been blessed with some amazing weather for our best race days and some huge crowds. And the standard of racing has been phenomenal so racing is in good heart in Auckland.”
Although Roger That was the big winner on the day he wasn’t the “biggest” winner. That honour went to giant Clydesdale Frank The Tank who won the Auckland Clydesdale Cup as the mammoth equines raced on the inside track, much to the crowd’s delight.
● Roger That scores p40