Taking on Winx and bowel cancer
‘‘We’ve had an incredible last couple of years really and we don’t want it to stop.’’
ou’ve got to have a go.’’
Those six words Kiwi horse trainer Michael Pitman uttered from his hospital bed this week sum up much of what his career has been about.
Pitman, 63, was referring to Savvy Coup – a double Group I winning horse he trains alongside his son Matt – taking on Winx in the A$5 million (NZ$5.4 million) Cox Plate.
Pitman will be having a dig like never before at Moonee Valley in Melbourne today against arguably the best horse in the world.
It’s an underdog mission of epic proportions and Pitman, who was only discharged from Christchurch Hospital on Thursday afternoon after undergoing surgery as he continues his fight against bowel cancer, wouldn’t have it any other way. As a child, Pitman spent much of his time at Riccarton with his parents who were keen racegoers.
Remarkably, when he started out on an ownertrainer licence more than four decades ago, Pitman had not officially worked for another horse trainer. There was no apprenticeship as such.
And then to complicate matters further, he lost his lower left leg in a car accident just months after his training career got under way. He would spend six months in hospital.
Back then, few would have thought he would train more than a handful of winners, let alone the more than 1700 his records now show.
Despite being based in the South Island – where there is less racing than the North – Pitman has consistently been in or just outside the top five in the national trainers’ premiership during the past eight years. In the 2007-08 season, he became the first South Island-based trainer in more than three decades to win a premiership.
Just like taking on Winx, Pitman says you should never be afraid of a challenge.
But he’s also a realist. He knows that if nobody has beaten Winx in her last 28 starts, there’s not much chance Savvy Coup will either. If she can beat home three of the eight runners in the race, Pitman will walk away happy.
‘‘Finishing fifth is worth $200,000 (NZ$216,370). That’s more than most horses earn in a lifetime,’’ he said. Pitman, who watched the live barrier draw for the Cox Plate from his hospital bed, Michael Pitman, above.
believes being at Moonee Valley to see Savvy Coup take on Winx will be a career highlight regardless of the result.
Winx, trained by expat Kiwi Chris Waller, will be racing for her fourth consecutive victory in the Cox Plate – one of Australia’s greatest and most iconic horse races.
If she does deliver on her $1.22 favourite’s tag, Winx will win her 29th race in a row and become the first horse to win the Cox Plate four times.
Savvy Coup is, in all likelihood, racing for second just like the rest of the field. But just being there for the race is an achievement for Pitman.
Following his discharge from hospital two days ago, he was on a flight to Melbourne yesterday morning. He has spent most this month in hospital after undergoing the first surgery and then a second surgery to deal with an infection.
The Cox Plate is contested over 2040 metres – the same distance Savvy Coup won her last race over, the Group I Livamol Classic at Hastings on October 6 and there is a tenuous form link for the race to the Cox Plate and Winx.
Former Kiwi horse Humidor finished second in the 2016 Livamol behind Willie Cazals before being transferred to Ballarat trainer Darren Weir.
In last year’s Cox Plate, Humidor ran Winx to half a length when placing second.
Savvy Coup won’t be Pitman’s first crack at the Moonee Valley track. He started two three-yearold’s in the Alister Clark Stakes ‘‘a long time ago’’.
The Pitman stable has been on a roll in the past couple of years with Savvy Coup winning the New Zealand Oaks and Livamol plus Enzo’s Lad taking out the Telegraph sprint.
‘‘We’ve had an incredible last couple of years really and we don’t want it to stop,’’ Pitman said.
Pitman, who lost both of his parents to cancer, is determined to beat bowel cancer and who would bet against him?
So how did the man who has beaten the odds most of his career pay for his trip to Melbourne? By beating the odds of course.
‘‘As soon as the odds came out for the Livamol I had a decent crack [bet] on her. We were so confident,’’ Pitman said.
● Pitman senior will be without Matt at his side after his son remained in Christchurch to be with his partner Patricia who has developed complications from pregnancy.