By Duane Ranger
Brent Mangos isn’t getting too carried away with his promising pacer Vampiro, but deep down he knows he has a very nice 3-year-old in his Waiau Pa barn.
“He’s done everything we have asked of him. Every time he steps out on the track he seems to be a better race-horse. He’s still three or four months away from his best.
“Whether he can match it with the top 3-year-olds is a another quiestion. That’s a huge step for any young horse to take, but as for now, I couldn’t be happier with him,” Mangos said.
The lightly tried son of Rocknroll Hanover and Fortune Lover (by Artsplace) notched up his second win in two starts at Alexandra Park last night (Thursday).
Vampiro and Mangos led all the way from barrier one in the $13,000 Dunstan Summer Series Maiden Pace.
They paced the 2200m mobile in 2:42.4 (mile rate 1:58.8) and sprinted their last 800m and 400m in 56.8 and 27.7 seconds.
“He won his last three Workouts quite easily and then on debut (December 22) he drew one on the second line and didn’t get a go at them.
“We turned him out when he was a 2-year-old and he’s come back real strong this time in. He’s a very nice 3-year-old, but I want to stress to you he has a big leap to make if he wants to foot it with the guns later in the season,” the Franklin-based trainer/driver said.
“In saying that I couldn’t be happier with his progress,” he stressed.
Mangos liked the way Vampiro raced.
“He has a will to win and hasn’t let me down yet. He is quite impressive,” he said.
But perhaps the ‘drive of the night’ came from Mangos behind the Tim Vince trained Monnay in the feature trot – the $15,000 Dunstan Summer Series Handicap for the R60 to R116 trotters.
The 9-year-old Majestic gelding and Mangos started from 30m behind and went around to the lead at the 1700m (of 2700m) – and from that put Mangos set a solid clip in front, stretching his 12 opponents down the back straight.
It was a daring drive and proved the winning of the race. They held out the fast-finishing favourite, Speeding Spur, by half a neck.
The connections of the first two home would have been delighted with the race, especially the latter who has now virtually sealed himself a start in the Great Southern Star in Melbourne – a race he won last year.
Asked if Mangos took driving advice from Vince he replied:
“If he did it went in one ear and out the other,” he joked. “I knew that this fella couldn’t go much quicker than 3:30 (3:29.9) so that was the tactic.
“I tried to bowl him along as fast as he could to keep the good trotter out and it worked. Tim has done a great job with this trotter and I take my hat off to him. He fell in but the tactic worked,” said Mangos.
Monnay trotted a 2:05 mile rate and came home in 58.9 and 30.2. It was the Monarchy gelding’s 15th win ($120,259) in 75 starts, and second straight victory for Vince.
Vince has now remarkably trained eight winners from nine starters in the last fortnight. The Kumeu horseman’s 13 wins this season is a personal best.
Meanwhile, Mangos and Hall-of-Famer, Barry Purdon, were the most successful drivers at ‘The Park’ last night, winning two races apiece.
Purdon won the non-tote event behind the 2-year-old Majestic – Fear Factor (four wins) gelding he trains named Stress Factor and then three races later he won behind the Mach Three – Sly Shard (four wins) 2-year-old colt he also trains called Mach Shard.
Purdon paid $200,000 for the half-brother to Smiling Shard (17 wins and $1.1m) at last year’s New Zealand Premier Sale at Christchurch. He was the Sales topper.
One of the other highlights of the night came in $9,000 Winger group Fashion At The Oaks Handicap for the Up to R58 trotters.
Fourteen-year-old Moment Of Truth (Peter Ferguson) notched up his 29th career win ($266,919) in the 2200m stand. The Sundon gelding, who was claimed, was the $12.20 eighth favourite.
The old boy, who is trained by Liza Milina at Kumeu, has now won at least one race every season (except 2013-2014) since 2006-2007.
“The only time we put a sulky on him is race-day. I train him on the Murawai Beach behind the 4-wheel drive with my partner Matt (Bray). He does the driving and I’m sitting at the back with the horses.
“He always wants to go flat out. He’s happiest when he can do that. We can get up to 50km/h. Pete does a great job of driving him on race-day,” Milina said.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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