Local trainers knock rivals for six
Donna Logan says she’s sick of hearing about stable’s home advantage
Here’s the best tip for the week — don’t be the next person to tell Donna Logan the stable she shares with Chris Gibbs at Ruakaka has a local advantage.
The Logan/Gibbs team produced six of the nine winners at Ruakaka on Saturday and the jungle drums have echoed that its advantage is unfair.
Logan wants to know what that advantage is.
Yes, the one advantage is that the stable’s horses are accustomed to galloping on the sand-based course proper, but then most, if not all, horses manage it well.
Logan admits she is sour of hearing of the stable’s local advantage.
“A year or so back when we won a good amount of races it was said we had an advantage because we were saddling up our horses at our stables, which is adjacent to the course. There was no advantage, but we agreed to saddle up in the barn on the track and since then we’ve won more races than previously.
“I wish someone would point out what advantage we have. Anyone is welcome to come train here at Ruakaka. Matamata horses dominate at their local meetings but because there are a stack of trainers there no one says they have an advantage.
“Most horses are trained in the mud during winter and can handle wet tracks on raceday. We take our horses south to race in the mud and they can’t handle it because they’re not used to it. No one points out that that is a disadvantage.
“Anyone’s welcome to enter their horses at Ruakaka meetings.”
Racing is a tough game, you don’t drag a horse out of a paddock, put a saddle on it and go win races. It is a long process and training six winners on a day deserves congratulations. For the record, the stable saddled up 23 on Saturday and all but six finished in the first five.
“We just do our best for our owners. It’s pathetic that people find fault in that. Kevin Myers recently won six in a day and everyone cheered. I say good on him.”
Several of the Logan/Gibbs horses are worth following. Rocstock won the opener on debut on Saturday, finishing off well for a very green horse.
He looks to have great potential as does Kyrie Eleison, unluckily beaten into a close third in her maiden. Through inexperience she was slow from the gates and had to come from last to be finishing off strongly, indicating she is a work in progress.
Rockabyebaby provided premiership winner Chris Johnson with victory in the last and like the two already mentioned she is a fair way from her best form. Chasing Great, who came from last to win, is another worth following.
Troy Harris underlined just how well he is doing in his comeback by winning the first three races with superb tactics.
When John Morell was asked on television on Saturday how he thought juvenile filly Florence Jean would go you knew that on an enthusiasm scale of one to 10 the answer was going to be closer to one.
Not that Morell ever tries to swerve, he’s just a racing realist. Gushing is not the style of the Waikato stockman and horseman — let the horse do the talking.
The small but attractive filly didn’t talk, she fair dinkum shouted. The six length victory could have been 10 or more had Alysha Collett wanted.
Morell has a magnificent strike rate from a small number to the races and Florence Jean was produced in magnificent condition without having raced since February. She is not the type to perform on winter tracks so the best may not be seen again until the spring.
The TAB was forced into a good call on Saturday. The Toorak TowerCreative Genius dead-heat became awkward for the betting option of how many wins the Logan/Gibbs stable would score.
Obviously there was no option for five and a half wins so the dead-heat was counted as a win.
Which makes a mockery of the Sydney jockeys premiership where Hugh Bowman is one and a half wins behind Brenton Avdulla.
Isn’t a win a win?