Too Good: My Field Marshall wins the Len Smith Mile Photo by Lett Photography
THE fans turned out in force to see what was hailed as a match-race.
But feature-race specialists Tim and Anthony Butt spoiled the party when five-year-old My Field Marshall scored a race-record win in today Len Smith Mile at Tabcorp Park Menangle.
The son of former champion mare Foreal, by Art Major scored an amazing win in the Group One feature, nailing another surprise packet Mach Doro near the line to score in 1:50.2, breaking Hectorjayjay’s race record set last year.
The plucky Lennytheshark raced outside the leader Hectorjayjay and held on manfully to take third place, but had no answer to the sprint of the first two placegtters in the straight.
Part-owner of My Field Marshall Syd Brown said he had looked at the list of previous winners including the likes of Smoken Up (four times), Changeover, Beautide, Smolda and Hectorjayjay and said he dreamt of just having a horse good enough to compete against the Grand Circuit stars.
The rest was left to the Butt brothers . . trainer Tim has been in Sydney for almost a month preparing the Christchurch pacer for his shot at glory while Anthony, who is now domiciled in Melbourne, he has become one of that state’s leading reinsman with a string of winners.
But Anthony admitted this might be his biggest win on the Menangle circuit and was certainly something special against some of the best horses in Australasia.
Hectorjayjay (Josh Aiken) showed his normal extraordinary turn of foot to easily find the front in the 1609m sprint while Lennytheshark (Chris Alford) never shirked the task and gradually made his way around the field to sit outside of his stablemate for most of the race.
Turning for home it became obvious ‘Hector’ couldn’t shake off his stablemate, but that didn’t matter as first Mach Doro and then My Field Marshall made their moves out wide.
Butt had something in hand as he easily picked up his rivals to score in 1:50.2 after sectionals of 26.9s, 29.4s, 26.8 and home in 27.1 for a win that stunned most of those present – except the Butt, who knew they had a horse that was up to the task.
. . . and one whose name will look quite at home in the record books beside some of the greats of the sport.
