ROB'S SHOUT - RACING STARTING TO WARMUP; MY OLD FAVOURITE FUNTANTES LOOKS TO GO OUT A WINNER
By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, August 22, 2013
Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the multi-premiership and Group 1 winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO, workload permitting.
Hello once again,
The racing action is really starting to liven up again after the post winter carnival lull. Some potential spring stars making their comebacks and maybe we have even seen the Melbourne Cup winner with Puissance De Lune very impressive winning last week. Mind you, taking $5 bucks the fav this far out from the big race is nothing but lunacy.
We all know Bossy is a real carnival star but I reckon he’s on some good stuff to say the greys maybe the best he has ever ridden?
Fair dinkum, Makybe Diva won three Melbourne Cups, A Cox Plate and a host of other top races! Still, Glen tends to get it right more often than not in choosing a good one to glue his bum to around spring carnival time so let time be the best judge of Glen's quote.
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Some good local horses lining up in Sydney this weekend and I reckon they will go well. Good luck to Kelso and his team at Warwick Farm. Our horses are up to theirs!
Speaking of Sydney, I took a few down there a short time ago looking for better tracks and suitable races, Hidden Kisses and Griffon.
They perhaps should have won with a touch of luck and now sadly for me they have been relocated to Sydney based trainers. I am in no way aggrieved by the owner’s decisions to relocate as the horses have shown they can be competitive and well, the prize money is such that it is making it harder for us to attract and to keep the good horses here!
In fact, Hidden Kisses won the very next start for Chris Waller.
Both Richard and Wilf have been enormous supporters of my stable so I wish them nothing but success with their respective horses.
It may become an alarming trend to see horses head south so the outcome of the new corporate funding model currently under negotiation needs to have a hugely positive outcome for our industry … and be quick about it!
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This weekend sees my ripper mare line up again and quite possibly for the final time.
Funtantes has been an absolute gem from the very first time she walked into my stables.
She was my first Group 2 winner and that was from gate 15 in the Champagne at Doomben … tough to do for any horse.
She has lined up some 48 times and due to her juvenile Group 2 win, it’s nearly always been in very good company and with decent weights on her back. She has won 10 times with over 12 placing’s and a bank of about $700 grand.
A reader commented that stables have stars … and then stables have favourites.
Absolute stars justifiably grab the lime-light but there are others (unsung) who are arguably stars in their own right. Sure, Buffering, Woorim, Solzhenitsyn, Woorim, Fillydelphia, Fire Up Fifi, Our Lukas and a few others are without doubt the stable stars! But the favourites … yeah, they are special to me.
Kaminka, yes, she was the first favourite as she was my very first winner. Feisty little bitch she was but we loved her!
Funtantes, well she has been my stable favourite for a long time now and I have no doubt there will be a tear in the eye when she walks out of the gate for the last time!
Mind you though, it will be to the breeding barn so the sons and daughters will hopefully make their way back into the yard just as Funtantes did for me as long-time friend, Wayne Purchase, and I raced her mother!
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Funtantes has had her fair share of issues along the way. She tore a hamstring badly which required a lengthy break and she still gives it a tweak now and then.
She damaged a fetlock ligament once which I thought would bring the curtain down on her career but she fought back from that.
She won her very first race at The Sunshine Coast in Sunday 28th Dec 2008. That was nearly 1700 days ago so what a super job she has done to remain competitive for so long at a high level! Her win two weeks ago was a cracker. She ran her last 600 in 33 something!
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Her race on Saturday, yep, it’s another cracking race with a ton of pace in it and no doubt plenty of intrigue in it.
It sets up well on paper for Funtantes with ooddles of speed. Easy Running to possibly lead as he did when making a recent return to the winners stall, Vintage Moss (the likely fav) to go forward from out wide. Listen Son to kick up! The Sixties going forward and possibly caught three deep!
Yep. Plenty of action and intrigue in this race and where will Funtantes be in the run?
Essential she get a reasonable getaway as she has at times been known to blow the start so hopefully Geoff Goold can get her out and running and she can get the trail behind the fireworks up front?
Janette Johnson rode her last start but unfortunately she is suspended so Geoff gets the gig with his 3 kilos claim. He rides well and IF, he can get her to jump cleanly … maybe, just maybe, my stable favourite can go out a winner!
Still, there won’t be any sad faces whatever happens, not after the joy she has brought us for 1700 days!
The plan is to maybe have her covered, get her in foal and come back for a final farewell … mind you, a win and I reckon that might be it.
Plenty of good memories for sure with this one.
That’s why racing can be so damn special at times.
Happy days.
Cheers. Robert
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