The NZ Trotting Oaks 2022: the acorns ...

 

Writing up this week's happenings in my blog-diary, I was reminded of the fiasco over the crooked Oaks field 'selection' in 2022, which evicted EMILY from the field.

https://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2022/11/kurt-of-gerolstein-horse.html

So, I had the idea of looking to see just what had become of those fillies who were deemed worthy of a start in what is, allegedly, the fillies' classic of the year.

Well, only one of them -- easily the best one -- is still around, racing in the top class.  I expect to see HIDDEN TALENT, now of course, aged six, in the Dominion Handicap (NZ's trotting championship) later this year.

After her, the most performing of those still in action would be MIXED FAITH, which has won eight races, and has placed in her last three starts. I can't forbear to remark, on each occasion, behind EMILY.

The others? Well, a few are still around, racing with rather less success than more.

CON GRAZIA LOVE has won seven, but nothing else anywhere near the value of the Oaks. (PS good second last night)

TI AMO BELLE has been disappointing. She looked, at one stage, like a top filly. Especially when she won at Rangiora and just nicked a vast outsider, who was having her first start. EMILY.

The nice WESTAR MILLY, exiled to Auckland, finished 4th in a minor race tonight ..

Parenthesis. Why do we breed, buy, train racehorses, at vaster and vaster expense? Me, I want to see them run. Get a cheque, or even win. Give us a thrill. And keep doing it for as long as they are competitive. Any horse which I have owned, which the records show had only a dozen starts or two, either was a no-hoper (and there have been a few of those!) or got injured. So, I truthfully don't understand why these -- which HRNZ reckoned the best fillies in New Zealand, at the time -- hav'n't gone on to the sort of career that HIDDEN TALENT, MIXED FAITH or ... EMILY have.

Two of them never raced again, after this day. Others, little.

PARAMOUNT EMPRESS is the prime example. She was a wonderful juvenile. I remember the day she qualified. Rangiora. Cruised in by 7 lengths. 7 1/4 actually. I remember distinctly, because in 2nd place was ... EMILY! I can only assume that she got injured, or had some other problem. Or not. At six, already, she is a mother and a mother-to-be ...  Is there more money to be made by selling her progeny than by racing her. Undoubtedly. But ... where's the thrill?

Is it the old story of Racing the sport versus Racing the industry or business.  Me, I'm "sport". Silly old me!

Ah, well. All that was a very long time ago ... But I'm still here, Wendy is still here, and little Emily is still up and at 'em, and running the best races of her life!

Just a few weeks later:

CON GRAZIA LOVE has pulled her stockings up and recorded a 2nd and a win in Auckland.

But EMILY, not to be outdone, triumphed in the Southland Winter Final. And in the Southern Surge heats. With MIXED FAITH, again, not far behind on each occasion.

EMILY: the Final ...

 

Yesterday, was the final of the enterprising Silk Road Series.

All the best horses from the heats were lined up together.  Three Tisbury girls from Kirstin Green's stable and the formidable trio of Williamson brothers ...

Wendy was in the sky, on her way back to New Zealand. Somehow, by a combination of TV-mobile phone-Air NZ-wifi, which is way beyond me, she was able to see the race...

I, in order to watch it live, hitched a ride up to the Pacific Hotel with friend Robert, and, over a pint of Toohey's Dark, looked, with some sort of amazement, at the antics of the zig-zagging Australian betting market. 

'Sadie' was always hot favourite and would remain so, 'Spirit' was always the outsider, and would remain so. But the other four? 'Mixed Gait' seemed momentarily to be heading for second-favouritism, then Emily zoomed down to $1.04 a place, and finally somebody sane put sufficient on 'Kenny' to ensure her the number two spot.

Four minutes from the start, Emily was offered at 30-1.

Then I noticed the size of the betting pool. Minable!

Two minutes from racetime, Emily was a more reasonable $10, behind the three Williamson horses. 

The tapes pinged and, oh no!, race plan (1) out the window. Samantha, who usually begins like an Assyrian arrow, fumbled the start. Would we have to lead to ensure the pace? Please, no!  But 'Mixed Gait' came to the rescue. She started splendidly and whisked to the front, with 'Spirit' on her tail. Emily was in third, with Sadie right behind her ...

And for much of the race, trotting along at an increasingly brisk tempo, that order was maintained, with the backmarkers gradually creeping closer .. and 'Spirit' struggling a little. As they turned for home, the leader, too, got a touch of the stitch and ...Mark swept EMILY to the front. Once again, just like last week, I wanted to uproot the winning post and drag it 50 metres back ...

But, this week, unlike last, I wasn't up on my one good foot, yelling. Sadie had, clearly, yet to launch her last rocket. And, just like last week, she launched it just in time to zip to the front in the last hectometres ...  And, just as in the first heat, Aroha Kenny whistled down the outside to get past Emily in the final strides.

And the wonderfully gutsy 'Spirit' came in fourth!

The record shows that there was a half length between Sadie and Kenny, with a further half-length back to Emily. Well, if she had to get beaten, it couldn't have been by two grander mares. 

'The most improved mare in Southland', commented one horseman. Yes, I'll buy that. And in Southland she will stay. I have no wish to make her travel back to Canterbury, to race Hidden Talent and I Dream of Jeannie and Eurostyle, on Cup Day. Even were it just to stick one up one end, or the other, of the Met Club assholes who illegally ruled her out of the Oaks in her year ...

Yes, that still rankles. Especially when one sees that the said Oaks winner, Con Grazia Love, is reportedly retiring with just seven wins, almost all in rather feeble company, up north. Yes, it is one of ranklingest moments in my quarter-of-a-century racing horses ..

But, at the moment, I am in love with harness racing, in love with our little mare...

I was even about to say 'with Harness Racing New Zealand'. But today a bombshell exploded.

For the past years, we have been forced into an unnatural system of race- and race-meeting management and construction. This business of the R-ratings. A wholly inept effort to keep older horses racing in New Zealand rather than being sold overseas. So it was said. Of course, like any system, it quickly found advised practioners who 'used' the system ... but, even if we others didn't 'use' it, we learned to live with it, and plan our and our horses' year around it. 

And today, Friday, HRNZ is changing the rules. Yes, they needed changing, but NOT at 72hrs notice ... and not in the way they have been changed. An investigation is needed. Or total transparency. There are too many 'interested parties' involved. 

Why the hurry? Very suspicious. So, has HRNZ done a volte face? do we no longer want to keep older and winning-types on the game? Is this an attempt to foist yearling racing on us instead. Two year-old racing is, already, a sad affair.

Wouldn't be great if we could go back to the 1950s style of racing. But no. We've become a midget-widget in the great global gambling game ....   

Who cares for the horses? Some of us.

Awwww. Look, here's our Em having her supper, tonight, with her girlfriend RASPALIA ("Polly, you're winning too many races, too quickly ... those devils at HRNZ will find a way to penalise you!).  Back home with trainer Kirstin. The home where she has blossomed so beautifully ...

EMILY: Heat Three ...

 

The field for Heat 3 of the Silk Road series was small, but decidedly classy. 

Six horses, including the winners of the first two heats, AROHA KENNY and SAMANTHA'S MOON, plus little EMILY, who had finished second on each occasion. However, the boilingly hot-pot was a newcomer to the series. One of the very best New Zealand three year-old fillies of last season; PRINCESS SADIE. Two starts back, in the NZ Oaks, she had gone down only to the Australian champ KEAYANG ZAHARA. 

Barring accidents, the rest of us would be battling for minor money!

Alas, there was an accident, but not to SADIE. And not on the track. The lovely AROHA KENNY had a paddock accident and had, along with its stablemate, to be scratched. The field was down to four!  Well, who says you can't have a grand race with four horses ...

Wendy, Sarah, Jen and I made our way to the Pacific Hotel, on the hill ... and sat down with a drink to await the race, broadcast on the banks of TV screens ...

Sadie was, of course, odds-on favourite. Samantha and Emily were equallish second -- at a distance. Each of them at a little worse than 4-1. 

Now, Samantha is a noted fast-beginner and front-runner. Would she do her thing again this week? Or would Sadie run them all ragged, in her first run for five months? 

Samantha set off at a great rate, gobbled up her handicap and made sure there was no hoof-dragging on her watch. Emily followed, just like last week ... Sadie sat in 4th until 500 metres from home, and then moved up...  

But, surprise, Emily moved too! As they came round the last bend, she hit the front. Samantha had had enough .. and Sadie? She put in a queer step or two....

We were all on our feet yelling ...!  Hurry up, finish line!!

But the young Hayden Douglas, in Sadie's sulky, knew what he was doing. Inexorably he nibbled away Emily's advantage, and two strides from the post - while Mark and Emily were throwing everything into the battle, - Sadie (with Hayden doing just enough) hit the front. Our girl was beaten by a neck.

The time for the race was impressive. 2400m from a standing start ... 2 min 02.8 mile rate ... I think that is just about Emily's fastest race to date ...

So her record now reads 70 starts, 6 wins, 11 seconds, 9 thirds...

So, on to the Final. Who is qualified? The HRNZ website doesn't seem to say ... I guess we will find out on Monday. 

Go, little girl!  (Er   ... little?)

Monday ... and here we are. All the old friends and rivals ...

EMILY: The second semester of a six-year-old

 

 Yesterday, our little girl was back to the track. Autumn holidays over!

 

Term one had gone quite well. Although she had not actually won a race, she had notched up multiple second and thirds and given us a tremendous amount of fun.

 

So, roll on term two! First up was to be a fillies and mares race -- nice, I wish there were more of those --- what was not quite so nice, for Emily, was that it was over 2700 metres, a touch further than her best distance. What was definitely not so nice was the race rating. 35 upwards. So it was, basically, a free-for-all. From the glummest maiden to multiple race-winners. So much for Harness Racing New Zealand's profession to have like-racing-like! 

 

When the field came out, it certainly wasn't like-against-like. Handicapping made it more reasonable, but ... 

Actually, Emily came out of it rather well. The front line was definitely not of the level of the rest. The back lines, with Emily's stablemate SAMANTHA'S MOON (20 metres), and the decidedly classy AROHA KENNY (30 metres) were another world altogether! Emily shared the 10 metres line with two recent lower-grade winners and another fine trotter in MIXED FAITH. How that girl ever got so low in the ratings, I know not. 

Hmmm. I thought. We ought to have a chance for a cheque .. oughtn't we?  Then the local tipsters' picks came out. Oh.

Fair enough. AROHA KENNY had all suffrages. But one measly fourth pick? Was I being too hopeful? 

What WAS I hoping for? Well, second place would be good. A couple of thousand dollars, and you don't get any added rating points. Just like the old days of C1, C2, C3.  A win? Well, you never say no to a win! That's what you are there for. Aroha Kenny COULD gallop!

Well, she certainly didn't begin well. And two of the 10-metre horses blew themaelves out of the race. EMILY began well, but not brilliantly. She still does that funny little dance step when the tapes fly. But, nowadays, it's not much more than half-a-step. But SAMANTHA simply flew the start, made up her handicap in no time and zoomed, as is her wont, to the front, at a great rate. The front markers glued themselves grimly to her back wheel and EMILY slotted in to fourth, as they ate up the first kilometres ..

Mark wisely nipped EMILY off the fence, as the trailing horse imploded outrageously with a whole lap left to go, then nipped back in again, once she was out of the road, following Samantha, as MIXED FAITH loomed up on the outside of her ... it looked as if it would be a three-horse finish ... AROHA KENNY was still half-a-dozen lengths back!

Into the straight, EMILY took inside lane. Past MIXED FAITH she went, past SAMANTHA (who had a puncture!).. and she hit the front!  But half-a-dozen lengths deficit was nothing to AROHA KENNY who flew down the outside, past all three of them ...

Second. Open the bottle!  Exactly the hoped-for result!

Wonderful start to the new term!

Onwards and upwards! Invercargill has a second round of this series next week. I guess most of these same mares will be out again ... well, it seems EMILY can cope ...

PS. These four finished 8 lengths ahead of the 5th horse (which was hampered by the imploding one). And FIFTY lengths ahead of the remainder. Steeplechase distances ...   Are free-for-alls really fair-for-all ...?

PS I see the imploded one has been stood down. Rightly so.

Addendum:  The second heat.  No Aroha Kenny, this time. She has done her stuff and qualified for the final. So SAMANTHA (20 metres) is, this time, the back-marker. And it's 2200m. EMILY is off 10 metres.

So, it's the same race again, without the winner, and with one addition. Why should the result be any different? Well, the southern "tipsters" (often a feeble lot, especially number two)  thought not. 

The TAB was a little more dignified

Well .. here's what happened ..

https://www.youtube.com/wach?v=fyOPWouBc90&t=113s

On to heat three ...  the stiffest one yet!  Both the so-far heat-winners plus a couple of classy young 'uns!  

Go, little girl!