MANZELMANN LOADS UP AT BIRDSVILLE

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, April 5, 2022

The nominations deadline for all six races at Birdsville on Sunday, April 10 were extended from last Friday to Monday.

Forty-nine runners were nominated for the meeting at the original nomination deadline on Friday with trainer John Manzelmann heading the list of entries in terms of numbers, submitting no less than twenty nominations … with, quite incredibly, fifteen of the Manzelmann stable nominations coming in one race … the QTIS Maiden Plate over 1200m … that is fifteen out of the sixteen runners nominated for that particular race!

Chances are that not even Chris Waller has had that many targeting a run in the same race.

Ultimately, when the fields were published on Tuesday the total number of horses involved at the meeting came down to thirty-nine, at this stage, with a total of fourteen Manzelmann runners now nominated to face the starter on the Sunday raceday … the significant point there being that Manzelmann now saddles eight runners in that Maiden Plate event which has now come down to a field of nine.

Manzelmann is no stranger to having a field loaded in his favour.

In fact, for many, many years, loading races up with numbers has never been a trait that Manzelmann has shied away from. One of the most telling examples of that can be seen in a 2014 headline from The Advertiser which trumpeted, ‘All nine horses in Mackay race trained by Queenslander and certain winner, John Manzelmann.’

Manzelmann probably doesn’t know which way to look in races like that … and, to a degree, to some extent at least, the same can probably be said of the race-caller.

The more horses that run in Manzelmann’s own, well known, dark blue with a light blue star colours, the more the commentator has to familiarise himself with the array of different coloured caps that will identify the individual Manzelmann runners.

In this case, that commentator will be Josh Fleming who has a unique history with the Birdsville races having called the event since 1999 … and the bad news for Fleming is all eight of the Manzelmann entries in the Maiden event race are due to race in the regular Manzelmann colours.

“I’m not looking forward to that race, I can tell you, because I rarely call his colours and I don’t know his horses to begin with,” was Fleming’s forthright response when asked about Manzelmann’s entries in the Maiden Plate event.

“I don’t know how many of his horses will get in the race. It will come down to how many jockeys they can get out there.

“I know they love the name ‘rocket’ in their horses … so it will be Milky Rocket and Rocket this and Rocket that, so I’m not looking forward to it, but it is what it is.”

Fleming is not wrong there …with the Maiden line-up including horse named Lenny Rocket, Milky Rocket, Aidan Rocket and Paparazzi Rocket.

“It’s better that than not having the race at all,” continued Fleming. “Hopefully it might be race one and we can get it out of the way.”

Fleming has got his wish in this regard, with the Maiden Plate indeed set to kick off proceedings as race number one.

“At the end of the day though, I am glad John and Jade are going to Birdsville. We’d be in a bit of trouble without them because the nominations are low and they are supplying more than a third of the runners for the whole meeting … so it is very, very good that they are coming out,” acknowledged Fleming.

In all, ten trainers have nominated horses for the April 10 meeting.

Apart from Manzelmann, that list is made up of Todd Austin (6 nominations), Shryn Royes (5), David Rewald (4), Kym Healy (4), Garry Bignell (3), Philip Cole (1), Ross Meek (1), Nippy Seymour (1) and Tracy Simmonds (1)

Sunday April 10 is Day One of the Birdsville races.

The Birdsville Cup will headline a seven-race card on Monday April 11.