Mark Purdon, the champion trainer-driver, who heads New Zealand’s most powerful stable, the All Stars team with his partner Natalie Rasmussen, arrived at the track rated the best in the Southern Hemisphere prepared for a big day.
With four Group One aspirants, the modest Mark suggested he’d be happy to win “two or three” of the majors. And that’s exactly what he did with the highlight being his two wins in the $125,000 Three-Year-Old finals with Supersonic Miss (fillies) and Kept Under Wraps (colts and geldings).
Supersonic Miss gave high-profile Victorian owner Merv Butterworth another feature race success when the daughter of Mach Three was able to kick strongly in the straight with a last half of 56.1s and a final quarter in 27.1s to beat the unlucky Ameretto and gutsy Bamako Mali in a 1:57.1 mile rate.
While Ameretto’s run was huge after galloping early in the race, nothing could be taken away from Supersonic Miss, who has thrived since she arrived from New Zealand and has now won nine races and run seven placings from just 22 starts and earnings already over the $350,000 mark.
“She was a great horse in New Zealand and she’s even better here on this fantastic track,” said Butterworth, who has a marvelous strike-rate in feature races on both sides of the Tasman.
If there was one horse not as strongly favoured among Purdon’s hope it was probably Kept Under Wraps, who has had to settle for the runners-up cheque at his two previous starts.
Yet Purdon had him ready to fire in the colts and geldings final and after Mouse In The House handed up the lead to Kept Under Wraps early in the 2400m feature, Purdon did the rest, scoring a mighty win in a 1:57.4 mile rate, beating outsider Pompidou and Mouse In The House.
Purdon paid tribute to his team for selecting horses at the yearling sales that are now really paying their way.
“A lot of hard work goes into selecting these horses and we start looking as soon as the yearling catalogues come out – 10-12 weeks before the sales,” he said.
28 June 2015
By Michael Court, Editor-in-Chief, National Trotguide
Driving The Future of Harness Racing