Hearts in mouth as Oscar shows ticker
On face value, Addington’s iconic Show Day meeting yesterday looked like any other major race meeting. It was anything but.
The results show star trainers Mark and Nathan Purdon trained the winners of both the $300,000 Dominion with Oscar Bonavena and the $200,000 New Zealand Pacing Free-For-All with Self Assured.
Nothing unusual in that — after all they trained two Group 1 winners on Tuesday, too, and usually pick up a couple at our major meetings.
But not like this, not in the weird twilight zone that enveloped Addington yesterday and left punters wondering what evil deeds that could have possibly been party to in a previous life to deserve such a series of bizarre mishaps.
That fact Oscar Bonavena finally won one of New Zealand’s great trots won’t surprise anybody, as he has been a rare talent throughout his career, often betrayed by his own physical frailties which seem under control this campaign.
But even his trainers thought he would struggle to beat red hot favourite Muscle Mountain, who tracked him into the race at the 1800m mark before dropping out and being pulled up to a walk.
The culprit? That arch enemy of punters atrial fibrillation, a heart beat irregularity, which Muscle Mountain has never suffered from before and many horses never suffer again.
So the big horse will be all right but the little horse Oscar Bonavena made the most of the favourite’s issue to explode to a commanding victory four years after starting odds-on in the Dominion.
Oscar was so good yesterday, he might have won anyway, but the best horse in the country having a misfiring ticker sure helps.
“That is very satisfying, after all the issues he’s had,” said Purdon.
Those words could also sum up Self Assured’s defence of his NZ FreeFor-All title, if not for the shock around his defeat of stablemate Akuta.
The Free-For-All weirdness started when Cup winner Swayzee was scratched on Thursday leaving Akuta the $1.20 favourite and that all looked well until he rolled into a shock gallop when leading with a lap to go.
Culprit No 2? Akuta was tripped up by his own hopple shortener string, which dangles below the sulky seat, as one of his hind legs hooked over it. This never happens, until it did. The incident could have been far worse, as Akuta was lucky not to fall, which would have been a horror show, instead regathering himself but never really looking comfortable.
He had still shaken off the rest of his challengers at the top of the straight before Self Assured, who was racing so poorly three weeks ago he was pulled out of the Cup, blew straight past him from last to win.
Self Assured has always been a wonderful pacer but his time has looked passed as he had struggled this spring, troubled by allergies but also looking to have lost his speed.
He found it again at the top of the Addington straight and sailed past his stablemate in the hands of Tony Herlihy to leave punters reeling and the bookmaker having not just dodged a bullet but an artillery shell.
“We thought he would go better [yesterday] because he has been getting over his allergies but we didn’t think he could beat Akuta,” says cotrainer Nathan Purdon.
Akuta may have been tired after trying too hard to bridge the gap in Swayzee in the Cup on Tuesday and his mid-race tangle didn’t help.
Or maybe some days belong to the punters and some belong to the bookies, and that theme was consistent in the other Group 1 yesterday when huge market drifter Our Shangri Lana led throughout to give trainer Steve Dolan his first Group 1 success.
She was $4.50 to $11 in the markets but never looked like losing after leading for Cup-winning Aussie driver Cameron Hart, while hot favourite Coastal Babe sat in the trail and couldn’t make up an inch.
That was Show Day 2023. An unforgettable day plenty will be wanting to forget.