Stone The Crows — pacer wins on debut

OAMARU turned from a monsoon area to Summer Bay after Stone The Crows won on Saturday.

The John Haytrained and driven pacer powered home in driving rain to win his debut on the Oamaru grass track.

The performance had commentator Mark McNamara calling ‘‘stone the flaming crows’’, the phrase made famous by Home And Away character Alf Stewart.

Soon after the race, the Oamaru track was basking in sunshine, as if the course had transformed into a summer bay.

Hay could not confirm whether his pacer’s name was a reference to the character’s famous line and credited his breeders, Tony and Anne Parker, for naming the horse.

Stone The Crows’ win rewarded his owners’ patience almost precisely three years after his purchase for $25,000 at the Australasian Classic Yearling Sale at Karaka.

Given what his close relation is doing at stud, that price could be considered a steal.

Stone The Crows is closely related to Auckland Reactor, being by Mach Three from a granddaughter of the sire’s dam, Atomic Lass.

Though Stone The Crows has matched Auckland Reactor in being unbeaten in his first start, Hay is not expecting their careers to have much more in common.

‘‘He has got a bit of scope about him but he is no Auckland Reactor,’’ the trainerdriver said.

Despite that assessment, there is no reason Stone The Crows cannot keep winning, in the short term at least.

The way the horse comfortably coasted to the line impressed Hay.

‘‘He has only had one trial and that was three or four weeks ago, so he did all right to win a race because he came and sat parked.

‘‘He actually won pretty easy in the finish.’’

Taking more than six months into his 4yrold season to be race ready was the result of a series of minor issues that had held Stone The Crows back, Hay said.

‘‘Just wee niggly things have gone wrong.

‘‘We were pretty confident he would go a good race today, but we weren’t sure how he would handle the grass.

‘‘We gave him a trial [in September] and he just went ordinary and since then he has never looked back.

‘‘His work has been really good at home the last 10 days — he has worked as good as you would want a maiden to work.’’