Mark tips his hat to Natalie
MARK PURDON and Natalie Rasmussen’s record- breaking season is officially over - but the dynamic couple has one final goal yet.
Not content with having dominated the rich age group racing in New Zealand throughout the season, they now seek to convert their innings by plundering the Australasian Breeders’ Crown Finals at Melton on August 24.
And yesterday, boom two-yearold colt Follow The Stars and filly Linda Lovegrace flew to Sydney on the first leg of their journey, before a float trip to Melbourne early next week where they will join stablemates Arya and late season improver Big Lucy, along with Messini, Kept Under Wraps and Iceobar who have been racing out of Brent Lilley’s barn.
Purdon is keen to end the season on a high by winning the A$302,000 two-year-old finals, particularly after Follow The Stars was knocked out of contention in the Harness Jewels at Cambridge at his last start.
‘‘We’ve won nearly every major two- year- old race this season except the Jewels and I think the performances by our two- yearolds has been the highlight of the season,’’ Purdon said.
In a season when the stable notched a record 157 wins - and another eight in Australia - 20 individual winners were babies, the strongest team of youngsters Purdon can recall training
And judging by the way Follow The Stars and Linda Lovegrace are training, Purdon is hopeful there’s more in store.
‘‘ Linda Lovegrace has thrived since the Jewels,’’ said Purdon who, driving Follow The Stars, was nosed out by the filly in a trial at Chertsey on Tuesday when they fired home in 26.6.
Purdon said he believed Caduceus Club Final winner Linda Lovegrace would be very competitive in Australia having been right up with a very strong crop of fillies in New Zealand, who looked to have the measure of their Australian rivals.
And Follow The Stars, who gave him his biggest buzz winning the Australian Pacing Gold, was now back bouncing after taking a little while to recover from the Jewels.
‘‘I don’t know if he had a little issue or something - maybe all the travelling to Aussie and back took its toll - but he is bright again.’’
The pair were headed for the Breeders’ Crown semis at Ballarat on August 16, races they should easily manage.
With the $ 3,070,286 the team won in New Zealand was not a record for the Purdon stable - it banked $3,414,764 in 2009 when Auckland Reactor was on his winning rampage - Purdon was also posted plenty of cheques from Australia where he tackled major age group features.
And he puts the freedom of being able to travel more down to the skills of his partner.
‘‘Natalie knows how to train a horse,’’ Purdon said. ‘‘She’s a very gifted horseperson and has the ability to weigh up whether a horse is having her on and not being genuine.’’
Much of the reason Purdon decided to focus on winning the premiership again, and not just the Group races - of which they won 15 - was so Rasmussen could share in the kudos.
‘‘ Natalie never got the recognition she deserved during her time in Queensland, apart from Blacks A Fake. The rest of her wins were in the names of Grant Dixon and his father Bill.’’
Purdon also took great heart from Rasmussen’s performance in the sulky during the season when she posted the remarkable figures of 43 wins from just 94 drives.
The tally gave her an unheard of UDR (universal drivers rating) of 0.5922, compared with Purdon’s second best of 0.4873 and leading driver Dexter Dunn’s 0.3225.
‘‘Horses run for Natalie and she has a rare ability to assess a horse and know how best to drive it,’’ said Purdon who watched his partner bag four of the season’s features, the $ 243,000 Yearling Sales Three- Year- Old Final on Isaiah, the $195,000 Yearling Sales Two- Year- Old Final on Alta Orlando, the $147,000 Sires Stakes Three- Year- Old Fillies’ Final on Willow and $ 113,000 Caduceus Club Final on Linda Lovegrace.
Purdon’s season was further enriched through watching the development of his sons Nathan and Michael, who both made good progress and were becoming good horsemen, he said. The brothers were now in Ireland at the start of their big OE.
‘‘All in all, we’ve had a wonderful season,’’ Purdon said. ‘‘You usually go through a bad patch at some time but thankfully, when horses have been injured like Smolda and Border Control, we’ve had others to replace them.’’
Purdon said it was too early to say if the two-year-olds they were educating now would be as good as the ones who dominated the season just ended - ‘‘I’ll know by October’’ - but his phalanx of now three-year-olds was sure to carry on where it left off.
And Purdon is also hoping he will have strong representation in the $700,000 NZ Cup in November.
Champion mare Adore Me is back going through her early season paces, former stable star Fly Like An Eagle, second in the cup last year, has returned, as have up-and-comer Arden Rooney and comeback stars Smolda and Hands Christian.
‘‘We’re putting a lot of work into Hands Christian but we’re living on hope a bit with him as he’s had two tendon tears.
‘‘And Smolda had that setback after he came back from the Interdoms (a fetlock problem) and has to withstand the pressure that will go on in the next month.’’
For Purdon it was his sixth premiership win from the last seven seasons - he was pipped by one on the final day last year by Cran Dalgety.
Champion driver Dexter Dunn took his seventh straight premiership with a tally of 206, 100 clear of closest rival Blair Orange.