Rae rapt with local trifecta
Ken Rae and daughter Krystal WilliamsTuhoro provided the first three runners home in yesterday’s 2-yearold feature at Ruakaka. Race favourite Dream Queen and rider Sam Collett proved too strong in the run home as they dashed away from Sam Weatherley on stablemate Follow Your Dreams in the closing stages to win by over four lengths, while compatriot Van Diesel, with Terry Moseley aboard, came from last on the home turn to snatch third.
It was a welcome return to the winner’s enclosure for Dream Queen, who finished second behind impressive debutant Tsunami Sam to kick off her latest campaign, as Follow Your Dreams finished a well-beaten fourth in the same race.
“That was a pretty special result as I never thought I could trifecta the race,” Rae said. “The first two home are smart customers, but the third bloke [Van Diesel] is an out-and-out stayer who I thought would probably get run off his feet. To
see him make up that much ground was a big surprise, but means we’ve got plenty to look forward to with him.”
Rae makes no secret of the high regard he has for Dream Queen and Follow Your Dreams, although he admitted he may have made a mistake leading in to their first-up efforts a fortnight ago.
“I think both may have been underdone last time. That’s what can happen sometimes as I was trying to look after them, as they both have big campaigns ahead of them, but I’d been expecting them to get closer to the winner that day than they did. They both took benefit from the run and that showed [yesterday] as they pretty much gapped the rest of the field.”
The Wellington Steeples and Hurdles will both be held at Hastings on Thursday after yesterday’s Trentham meeting was abandoned because of atrocious weather.
The Trentham meeting was called off after more than 60mm of rain fell in the area in a 24-hour period before scratching time (7.30am) yesterday which resulted in pools of water near the racing surface. And the gale-force winds pushed over small sections of the running rail.