ROB’S SHOUT - SUPER SATURDAY FOR QUEENSLAND AT RANDWICK
By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, October 7, 2010
Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the premiership winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO.
Hello again and wow, what a great week end for the Queenslanders on the big mstage at Randwick on one of their biggest days of the year!
Roger Milne and Greg Wagner dared to dream the ‘impossible’ and their dream came true with Captain Sonador’s Group1 win.
Yes, there were the usual knockers who scoffed at their long range plans to carry out their dream of an Epsom win, but that is why racing has such an allure!
Dreams can and sometimes do come true as it did for Greg and Roger last Saturday. An outstanding achievement to come to Randwick and win such a time-honoured race!
Roger Milne is such a quiet and unassuming chap and it was funny watching the media running around trying to locate the trainer immediately after the race.
I was fortunate enough to be at Randwick and to see the big handicap and I watched the media frenzy just after they crossed the line from inside the mounting enclosure.
It was too bloody crowded to be anywhere else!
I fully understood exactly the emotions that Roger was feeling as it was only an hour or so before that I had the very same feeling of euphoria and elation myself.
It gave me an enormous amount of pleasure to see Roger live his dream. It will certainly make the local media respect the Queensland horses just a touch more when we come on our southern raids!
Buffeting’s win in the Group 2 Roman Consul was certainly one of my biggest highlights in racing to date.
To win a feature race on one of the biggest stages in Australian racing at Randwick on Epsom day in front of a huge crowd was a thrill I will never forget.
A shame that the weather was not the best, but it did not seem to dull the enthusiasm of the big crowd and it didn’t matter to the very jubilant team of owners in Buffering.
Sure, winning the bigger prize-money races is great, but for me personally it is more about having a horse which is competitive against the best around which is the real buzz.
It’s kinda scary in a way to later realise that the Roman Consul Stakes has been won by the likes of Exceed And Excel, Fastnet Rock, Our Maizcay, Easy Rocking, Laurie’s Lottery and even the great Red Anchor.
The brilliant Gold Edition and the immortal Octagonal have run second in the race and the likes of Commands, Zariz, Just Awesome and Clang have placed third.
That’s an impressive line-up of multiple Group 1 winners and our little bay gelding has run a new race record in 1.09.07 which shaved .07 of Exceed And Excels 2003 record.
He has done that on a track which was rated officially dead, so it was certainly an enormous effort from Buffering and augers well for his future.
I really do think that the success of the Queensland horses, not just in Sydney last week end but also the deeds of Shoot Out in Melbourne, really emphasise the great form of the ‘local’ horses during our recent winter carnival.
No doubt they have far more better quality horses down south than us but our good horses can certainly measure up to theirs and the ‘chasm’ that has always existed in breeding quality local horses may well be narrowing a bit, especially with the recent deeds of our local stallions, in particular, Show A Heart and Hidden Dragon!
Buffering is a QTIS horse and whilst his sire is not based in Queensland, he was bred and raised here at Racetree Stud, so that makes him a local.
I am a local too, but I am first and foremost a very proud Tasmanian and I have a scar to prove it!
I must admit to having a real sense of ‘deja vu’ coming up the rise in the Roman Consul. The Darley horse in Obsequious loomed at Buffering’s hind-quarters at the 250m mark and as they had beaten us at the last two runs in Group races with Blackball and then Soul at Flemington, I thought, oh no, not again.
That’s when the real bulldog fighting qualities of Buffering came out and he found another gear and he actually pulled away in the run to the line.
I was quick to thank Henry Plumtree, the manager of the Darley operation, in my acceptance speech and I did remind him that the whilst things have not been too rosy for the Sheikh of late with oil prices falling, he is probably doing a bit better than our little band of battlers!
The wins of Captain Sonador, Buffering and the successes of Shoot Out really highlight the possibility of how it is achievable in this industry to get a top liner without having to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars at the sales.
Sure it is still very much the ‘Sport of Kings’ because it’s not cheap racing horses, but living the dream is still possible and it’s great for racing when a few of the ‘cheapies’ can reap some huge rewards.
Finding profitable races going from the yearling sales is always the primary goal of all owners and the reality is in fact very difficult to achieve.
A high percentage of horses don’t even get to the races let alone win races and the numbers that actually do make a profit at the end of the day are small in the overall picture.
I recently read where Australia’s most successful stallion in Danehill had about 2300 foals in Australia. Of that number some 500 never actually got to race and a number again never won a race.
So whilst a lot of Danehill progeny owners enjoyed some massive successes, there were a lot which did not share in the spoils and it further emphasises how tough the racing game can be.
It makes the deeds of the ‘cheapies’ that much more enjoyable and rewarding!
An added bonus of a horse like Buffering is that he has brought together a great bunch of people.
We are enjoying a wonderful ride at present. I have no regrets that my wife Vicky actually owned Buffering outright at one stage and we then brought together a big group of friends and stable clients to race him.
That’s what we do in our business and seeing the smiles from the connections after his wins makes it very special.
Owning a winning racehorse is a buzz that cannot be described, only experienced, which is why racing horses has for over a hundred years had that real ‘magnetic attraction’ to it! (Well, now I think about it, maybe just a few regrets, like $560,000 of them!)
The plan to return to Sydney after Bufferimg’s gutsy second-up the straight at Flemington worked well. It is very satisfying when plans come together and we kick a goal.
It is a bit unusual to do so much travelling with a young horse, or any horse for that matter, and it’s just another wonderful trait this horse has.
He travels and recovers so well like an old seven-year-old. It’s extraordinary for a young horse to adapt to the different environments as he does!
He had ten days in the paddock just outside of Sydney after his last run so I have to admit to a few trepidations that he may have been just a touch underdone going into the Roman Consul, but when Nash galloped him last Tuesday, well our confidence soared again, so well did he work!
I had considered giving him another month between runs and heading back to Melbourne for the Coolmore but one run in two months was a bit of an ask, so I have decided to give him another run in the Brian Crowley Stakes race at Randwick on the October 16.
He will then head back to Melbourne for the Group 1 Coolmore stakes up the famous six at Flemington on Derby day.
The travel and the tough, high quality racing may well catch up with our little ‘bulldog’ and when it does, he will get a good break … but for now, he has two more to go this preparation.
I have a couple more stable representives who are doing well in Woorim and Acquired. She didn’t back up too well at Flemington on Sunday but Woorim ran another blinder, storming home his last 200 in about 22.5 secs to just miss out again.
There is a real nice race in this horse very soon.
We have one of my favourites in Our Lukas racing at Caulfield on Saturday. He will not surprise me in the least if he can kick a goal while he is on his working holiday down south!
Dare we dream the dream of a Group 1 on the biggest stage of the Australian Racing calendar?
Why not? Roger Milne has just lived his and silenced those who don’t understand that dreams can be achieved if you have the courage to try!
Well done Roger and Greg, you have done Queensland proud just as big Johnny and Stathi are doing with Shoot out.
I hope one day soon they are saying the same thing about Buffering and Woorim and a former Tasmanian with a scar on his neck!
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