Amounis the thoroughbred won numerous features - the standardbred Amounis will have her first Australian start tonight
THE thoroughbred Amounis made his way into racing’s Hall of Fame after winning an incredible 33 races including the 1930 Caulfield Cup. He won the Epsom twice, the Cox Plate and the All Aged Stakes in a glittering career that spanned eight years and raced Australia’s greatest horse Phar Lap.
His harness namesake will make her Australian debut in the third race at Leeton after being purchased from New Zealand by a group of owners including form expert Matthew Peden. As a harness racing owner, Peden has enjoyed success previously but acknowledges the only similarity between the galloper and pacer named Amounis, is their name.
“The name Amounis rang a bell when we were looking at buying her from New Zealand, so I went back and did some research and found out just how talented the thoroughbred Amounis was,” Peden said.
“The pacing version Amounis has some good form in New Zealand and has been beaten by some talented horses, but we are just hoping she can win her purchase price back.”
Amounis is trained by Junee’s Trevor White and Peden has enjoyed success with the veteran horseman previously.
“Trevor trained a horse I had a share in called Hollywood Sign and did a fantastic job with him because Hollywood Sign won last season’s Wagga Horse of the Year title.
“We ended up selling him and he is now in the USA, but I think the horse is finding it a little more difficult to win races over there.”
Peden confirmed Amounis was set to trial recently at Wagga but missed the vital hit-out because of a lack of trial nominations.
“The plan was to give her a trial at Wagga, but I think they only got two horses for the trial so they didn’t end up running it.
“That makes it a bit harder tonight, because we don’t really know where she is at and she hasn’t had a real strong workout, but she looked very tough in New Zealand so even if she is forced to sit outside the leader I think she will be right in the finish.”
Peden has studied the race closely and nominates the Shane Gilligan trained Golden Scribe as the hardest to beat.
“Golden Scribe on paper has the best form in the race and has drawn a lot better than Amounis so logically he will be the one that we need to beat.
“Amounis was narrowly beaten by Woodlea DJ at Forbury in New Zealand a few months ago and Woodlea DJ will compete in a strong metropolitan race tonight at Addington in Christchurch so I think the form of Amounis is good enough to run a strong race first up.”
