Kentuckiana barn gets four at Oamaru
“It was a hell of a buzz. I get excited when we win one race. So to win four, you don’t plan that,” said Cran Dalgety who trains in partnership with his wife Chrissie.
Their two feature wins arrived in the $40,000 Group Three Sally-Ann Donnelly Hannon Memorial and the $20,000 Diamond Creek Farm/SBSR Juvenile Stakes.
Smart two year old Tour Party (Bettor’s Delight) lead all the way in the Juvenile Stakes and showed marked improvement from his fresh up run for second last week.
“He hadn’t raced for about five months. He was actually really wound up before the race and probably took a bit out of himself. But in saying that the other horse (Faith Not Fear) was a bit too quick for us on the night and we blew out a bit.”
At the line in today’s feature the Dalgety runner had two lengths to spare on stablemate The Visionary.
TOUR PARTY REPLAY
“He’s only a two year old but in the old scales (season ran from August to July) he’s really a three year old so he’s going to take a bit of work and a bit of racing. We can’t pamper him now. He’s had the foundation to take the workload and the racing now. Knowing that you’ve had a couple of races early in your campaign (in Auckland) is a big advantage. We’ll take that onboard and use it.”
It was a great result for the race sponsors SBSR. John and Katrina Price from the group, bred Tour Party and sold him as part of the SBSR draft at the NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales in Christchurch.
“I have to come clean because Chrissie and Carter were keener than me. It was fair to say that we could have missed him, but they were determined to get him.”
Tour Party is a full-brother to War Party (who won again on Friday night) and the Dalgety’s stable star Republican Party.
“When he walks slowly he waddles like a duck and Republican Party and him are very similar in that way.”
Dalgety says the $200,000 Harness Million at Addington on October 9th is the two year old’s main target.
“We’ll work backwards from there. There is another Sires’ Stakes heat. I’ve had a few two year olds before that as soon as you pamper them they get away on you. He’s potentially one of the better two year olds that I’ve had. He’s by a great sire and his brothers are doing good so we know he’s not a fluke. He’s very exciting going forward.”
In the Hannon Memorial the Dalgety trained Franco Sinatra (Captaintreacherous) clung on to beat a late charging Bettor’s Anvil by a nose, with favourite It’s Tough half a length back in third.
FRANCO SINATRA REPLAY
“We went into the race quite bullish but we know how good It’s Tough is. We wanted to settle in front of him and make him work hard because he’d only had the one trial. Going forward we know we’re probably inferior to It’s Tough but we knew we had the fitness today,” said Cran.
He’s unsure as to whether Franco Sinatra will target the New Zealand Cup or the NZ Trotting FFA.
“Sometimes excitement and the prestige overcomes common sense. I’d rather be vying to nearly win the FFA as opposed to run a super sixth in the Cup. I just feed the horse and work him but the owners will make the call.”
Dalgety’s other winners today were Marble Arch (Always B Miki) and Aardie’s Memphis (Bettor’s Delight). All four were driven by his son Carter.
For complete race results, click here.
by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink
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