Happy days for Doncaster winners
The horse that never dodged Winx has his day in the sun at Randwick
It gets better than this only once every three weeks if you’re lucky and only because of Winx. Australia’s most popular horseman and Australia’s second most popular racehorse. No, not Winx but her would-be nemesis, Happy Clapper.
Happy Clapper and Pat Webster got the pinnacle success they both so richly deserved when the A$3 million Doncaster fell into place for them at Randwick on Saturday.
Without Winx not only would the Happy Clapper team be several million dollars better off, Saturday’s victory would be everyone’s pin-up idol.
Even with Winx capturing everyone’s heart, you wouldn’t believe the following Happy Clapper commands across the Tasman. Cult-like. Not because of 24 straight wins (Winx), but for sheer honesty and heart.
Heart is the operative word in that sentence, because Winx has not broken Happy Clapper’s chest pump despite relentlessly chasing her home in Group Ones. She broke Hartnell’s heart. He is a now a shadow of the great racehorse he once was.
After Saturday’s memorable victory astute television commentator Greg Radley enthused that Happy Clapper is the horse that has never dodged Winx. “I think she’s toughened him up,” added cohort Ron Dufficy. That was put to Pat Webster, who looked like the man who had just discovered a cancer cure.
“Not sure about that,” said Webster, “we nurse her after she races Winx.” Webster is a major part of the love affair with Happy Clapper. The veteran Randwick trainer is also the mentor for troubled young jockeys that may have fallen off the beaten track. Five minutes in his company and his compassion beams.
Consider this: he took Happy Clapper to Flemington for the Group 1 Mackinnon Stakes on the closing day of the Melbourne Cup carnival. As the field jumped from the 2000m start one of Gingernuts’ New Zealand owners collapsed alongside him in the grandstand.
Gingernuts had broken bones in a leg on the way to the barrier and the part-owner collapsed. With no thought for his own possible million dollar result Webster dropped to his knees and applied CPR.
When he got the New Zealander out of danger, moments after the finish, he leapt to his feet and said: “How did I get on.” Well, not too badly, Happy Clapper picked up A$360,000 for second to Japanese stayer Tosen Stardom. That’s what you call a proper bloke.
As Saturday’s winning jockey Blake Shinn said immediately afterwards: “Good things happen to good people.” Yes, but it can take time. Since he was a teenager, Webster dreamed of one day winning the Doncaster. For years he has said you can have your Derby, your Golden Slipper, your Cox Plate, I want to win the Donny. He moderates that only slightly because the race is named after Randwick’s famous pub, the Doncaster. “It’s been our watering hole for 40 years.”
Happy Clapper finished second to Winx in the 2016 version of the Doncaster and again to It’s Somewhat last year.
Talk to Chris Waller if you need confirmation of the ranking of the Doncaster. Waller, who does not make mistakes, aimed Rosehill Blake Shinn Guineas-winning colt D’Argento at the Doncaster rather than Saturday’s Derby. “If a colt wins the Doncaster it’s worth $20m as a stallion. If it wins the Derby, probably $3m to $4m.” Difficult to comprehend, but Waller is not given to exaggeration.
Greg Radley asked Webster if he was going to back up Happy Clapper against Winx in this week’s Queen Elizabeth at Randwick. The obvious answer would have been, are you kidding? Of course. Too polite for that, Webster said: “It’s A$570,000 for second,” then added with that delightful mock self-humour of Australian horsemen and something Australian cricketers would do well to learn: “[Of course we’re running], I’m going so bad even the ants have left home.” Thanks to Happy Clapper that, for Webster, who battled for years, is now not true. The Clapper has banked close to A$6m.
Happy Clapper has joined only a handful of great horses to have completed the Epsom/Doncaster double in the same season. Remarkably, he looked extremely fresh pulling up on Saturday despite, under 57kg, running the fastest Doncaster win of all time — 1.33.17 and missing the track record by 0.4 of a second. Blake Shinn, a descendant of the famous Shinn Sydney harness family, produced what would be a worthy ride of the season, conservatively tracking the leaders and punching home hard.
“This is so special to me,” said an emotional Shinn. “This means so much to Pat, which is what makes it so great for me. Because of that I rate this right up there with my Melbourne Cup [Viewed].”
There was a quick remarkable shift around leading up to the Doncaster when Corey Brown had to be replaced on D’Argento after he was struck on the chest mid-race by the head of his Derby mount The Lord Mayor, who clipped a heel. Brown dislocated his rib attachments on his spine and was taken to hospital. The problem was D’Argento was weighted at 49kg and a replacement at that weight was impossible.
Andrew Adkins was engaged by Chris Waller, but the colt had to carry 51kg, which made a difference. D’Argento came from last at the 600m to flash into fourth half a length from second. It’s doubtful he could have tested Happy Clapper, but he would have definitely finished second but for the additional 2kg.
New Zealand-bred filly Luvaluva scored a remarkable victory in the A$200,000 Adrian Knox Stakes at Randwick, Kerrin McEvoy riding for John Sargent. The filly had to be withdrawn from the previous week because of a virus and was treated with antibiotics, which can have a lingering detrimental affect. If that was the case here it wasn’t obvious as Luvaluva, under 60kg, overcame having to give the entire field 7kg, being the widest runner on the home bend then last best in a desperately close home-straight battle. It was a massive trial for the Australian Oaks.
Shinn deserves applause not only for his Happy Clapper ride, but also for the exhibition on the Lance O’Sullivan-Andrew Scott trained (Sir) Charles Road to take the A$300,000 Chairman’s Quality. You would have to be a nark not to apply 10 out of 10 for the ride.