Grass proving greener in Aussie for pacing star
The lush paddocks of home are often considered one of the great strengths of New Zealand racing — but not for pacing star My Field Marshal.
Because trainer Tim Butt says getting away from home has been a crucial step in managing his group one star back to his best form and transforming him into a winning chance in tonight’s A$ 200,000 Blacks A Fake in Brisbane.
My Field Marshal has always had the speed of a top horse, the turn of foot the best stock of his sire Art Major are blessed with crossed with the ability of his open class dam Foreal.
But two wind operations have left the multiple group one winner with an unusual problem.
“His wind operations have been a success but they left him with some side effects,” Butt told the Herald.
“When he eats too much too quickly some of it now goes down the wrong passage and ends up in his lungs. So back home, where the paddocks have so much grass, he was eating way too much when we put him out, as stallions often do, and it was causing him all sorts of problems with his lungs.
“But over here in Australia that i sn’t a problem because you don’t have that much grass in the paddocks.
“We have also changed the way we feed him in that he gets fed smaller amounts more often and it stops him overeating.”
The improvement has been dramatic, with feature race wins at Melton and Menangle, the latest in the group one Len Smith Mile where he beat tonight’s major race rivals Lennytheshark, Tiger Tara and Hectorjayjay.
He faces a second line draw tonight and Butt is hoping a hot pace will enable his brother driver Anthony to weave his big- race magic.
“I leave that up to him, nobody researches and sums up these big races better than Ants.
“But now he is back to his best I think this horse ranks in the top five in Australasia on recent form and he will stay over here for the rest of the year.” Anthony will need to produce another perfect drive to win tonight’s 2680m group one, especially as Albion Park tends to favour leaders and rejuvenated former Kiwi pacer Tiger Tara could assume that role and be very hard to catch.
Also playing the chasing game tonight could be NZ three- year- old The More The Better, hot favourite for the A$ 75,000 Queensland Derby even off the second line.
He meets a moderate bunch of locals, boosted by the surprise inclusion of his former stablemate Motu Meteor, who looks the biggest danger from the ace.
Watching on live at Albion Park will be one of the legends of harness racing, with the patriarch of the Purdon family, Roy, making a rare trip to Brisbane as he owns a share in The More The Better. stewards and club officials didn’t take too long to call a halt to proceedings.
“I understand it wasn’t a difficult decision to make to abandon,” NZTR general manager of racing Matthew Hall said. “Those of us who have been in Wellington for the last 48 hours won’t be surprised by that.”
Two main areas of concern left the inspection committee in no doubt that the meeting couldn’t go ahead.
“There was surface water on the figure eight course and they did look at closing one jump and plotting a path around it, but that wasn’t feasible,” Hall said.
“There was also a lot of surface from the 200m mark to the winning post and then around to the 1400. It was a significant area under water.” Delaying the meeting wasn’t a viable option either.
“The forecast for tomorrow has deteriorated a bit as well so we couldn’t move it to Sunday,” Hall said.
NZTR general manager of racing Matthew Hall
Samantha Wynne was on fire at Phar Lap Raceway yesterday, winning four races at the South Canterbury meeting from as many rides. “I was really glad that I could get the job done for the owners and trainers,” she said. “Most of them have been with me from the beginning.” Although a successful day for the Irish jockey, it is not her biggest haul. “I won five races at Oamaru last year, but today I only had four rides which made it that much better,” Wynne said. The four- win haul adds to a rewarding season for Wynne, although it has been an emotional one for her. “It was a fantastic season and it is ending a lot better,” she said. “It was very up and down with a lot of rollercoasters, losing Rebecca [ Black] was very sad and then losing my best horse a few weeks later was very hard. Currently seventh on the jockeys’ premiership, Wynne said she is happy she is close to attaining this season’s goal and is looking to improve on her performance next season. “This year’s goal was to finish in the top 10. Next season I’d like to finish in the top five and I’d really love to win a group one.” Well- performed youngster Princess Rihanna is likely to head toward the fillies’ feature during the Hawke’s Bay spring carnival. “We’ll probably have her ready to go in the Gold Trail Stakes,” said Lance O’Sullivan, who trains with Andrew Scott. She won one of her five two- year- old starts this season and she also finished fourth in the Gr. 1 Sistema Stakes, the Gr. 2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes and in the Listed Karaka Million. So Far Sokool has arrived at her new Australian quarters with Ballarat trainer Archie Alexander bullish about her future. The daughter of Showcasing was a winner and runnerup in the Listed Great Northern Foal Stakes for Byerley Park conditioners Peter and Dawn Williams before her sale to OTI Racing. “She’s quite a small filly and she’s not the most impressive to look at, weighing just over 400kg, but she’s got a big heart by the looks of it, watching her replays,” Alexander said.