RACING WRAP
A chance meeting at the Crown Casino in Melbourne between an owner from the Jayne Davies’ stable and recently retired Australian Football League superstar Nathan Buckley set in motion a successful partnership that races Hurricane Jett, a two year old engaged in the semi finals of the New South Wales Sires Stakes on Friday night. Davies is a mad Collingwood supporter and got a thrill when one of her owners rang her to say that Buckley was keen to get involved in harness racing.
“It was all a bit of a shock. One of my owners phoned to say that he was at the casino and was playing a charity card game with Nathan Buckley, who is one of my heroes. The owner had been talking with Buckley telling him he should buy a horse and he said he would like to get involved, so it all started from there.”
At the time Davies had a colt that had just been broken in and was looking for a partner to race him.
“Because of EI, the horse was broken in by Ray White in Wagga and from all reports he was going to turn out to be a nice racehorse. Add to that the horse is black and white in colour, the same as the mighty Collingwood, so I thought that this was the horse to offer Buckley a share in.”
Buckley played 260 games for Collingwood during his 14 year tenure at the AFL club. In 2003 he was awarded the prestigious Brownlow Medal for the league’s best and fairest player. He and his wife Tania have one child and are expecting another later in the year and that is how the colt got his name.
“We named him after Buckley’s young son Jett. He is only about 18 months old, so the horse was named Hurricane Jett and every start the horse has had he is improving.”
The son of River Khan has only faced the starter on five occasions and has won three times. He debuted with an easy 10 metre win at Geelong before Davies gave the horse a shot at the rich Bathurst Gold Crown.
“We drew the front line in the heat of the Crown and despite breaking after the start he still was able to find the lead and win pretty comfortably. Because of the early break the horse was made an outside draw horse and it meant that would we draw the outside of the back row for the final. He was forced to cover lots of ground but still managed to finish second in the Gold Crown.”
Hurricane Jett returned to Victoria and started an odds on favourite when he finished fourth at Moonee Valley behind the smart Garnet River and according to Davies there were a few people who thought that he was pretty disappointing.
“Some people knocked him after that run but what people forget is that he covered a flat tyre for most of the race and was forced to sprint a long way from home, so I wasn’t disappointed at all.”
Davies gave him a 6 week break and took him to Wagga for a heat of the Sires Stakes and after drawing the second row still proved too strong for his rivals.
“It has been a while since his heat win so I took him back to the trials last weekend and gave him a pretty soft hit out. He is spot on and I am confident that he will qualify for the group one final.”
When staying in Sydney, Davies normally stays with the Bennett family but seeing as there will be two weeks between the semi final and grand final, she has decided to return to Victoria with the colt.
“Normally I would stay with Jim Bennett but seeing as there is the big break I can take him home. As I will only be there for a couple of nights I will be staying at Darren Hancock’s place. I am looking forward to getting him into the final because it would give us an opportunity to race on the new Menangle track.”
All of the Sires Stakes finals will be run at the grand opening of Menangle on June 29th. They will make up four of the seven group one races to be run on the day.
Hurricane Jett is engaged in race six on Friday night at Harold Park. The race will begin at 8:30pm.
At a time in his life when Garrett Newton was asking himself whether harness racing was worth it, a timely trip back to his hometown led him to one of the best opportunities the young trainer/driver has had in his career. With very few horses in work and seemingly few driving opportunities, Newton headed home for a chance to clear his head.
While at home Newton was introduced to leading breeder Eric Basham by Lyle Jones who offered Newton the chance to lease one of his well bred young fillies. Newton took a liking to one of the youngsters and despite thinking she would need time to develop he thought he would take her back to Albion Park on the south coast and give the filly, named Dymondee a go.
“I knew she was well bred, but when I found out she was out of Colada Hanover I thought the filly had to have some ability.”
Colada Hanover is the mother of Australasian champion Blacks a Fake making Dymondee a half sister and while the mare might not have the Inter Dominion winner’s ability, she doesn’t lack too much of the family’s determination.
Since starting for the first time in November 2006 as a three year old, the four year old mare has now raced 29 times and finished in the placings on 24 of those occasions.
“It’s funny, I was having a look at her record the other night on the computer and the worst result for her in a race has been 6th.and only in 3 starts has she come home from the races without bringing home a cheque.”
While Newton has been given the mare on lease for her racing career, he is very thankful that Basham has shown some faith in his training ability.
“I know that Eric got offered some pretty serious money for the mare recently but he stuck by his word and I will race the mare until her racing days are over. I think if she can win $100,000 she will have done a fantastic job and will make a lovely broodmare. I don’t think mares should be raced on past the age of six if they are going to be bred with so I have another couple of years until she will go back to Eric’s.”
Newton will be hoping Dymondee can overcome an awkward draw on Friday night after the mare drew barrier six in race five.
“She took a while to come back this time in after the EI but she has been racing very consistently in the last three weeks so I am hoping she can run another of her honest races again.”
For just the sixth time in her career, Newton will not be driving Dymondee this week because he was given a ten day suspension last Friday night by the stewards.
“Howard James will drive her for me this Friday night. Glen McElhinney drove her for me before and I credit Ben Sarina with showing me how to drive her properly when he drove her four times for me. He showed me that I was being a bit too kind to her.”
Newton works for legendary trainer Brian Hancock and is now a satisfied participant in the industry.
“We are working thirteen or so at the moment and I have a few that I train at Brian’s as well so it’s all looking good for me now.”
Dymondee will contest race five at Harold Park on Friday night. The race is scheduled for 8:00pm.
For more information and other Race Wrap news go to www.gazetteonline.com.au
