What’s in a name?

31 October 2017 | Terry Neil

THE late Bill Whittaker, regarded as one of our greatest – ever racing writers, firstly in trotting and later in the gallops, was always a likely choice for an owner choosing a name for a Sportswriter offspring.

Bill, a keen student of breeding and himself a breeder of a number of handy pacers, would have been flattered by the selection.

And he would certainly have been impressed by the Aussie debut of his namesake in the first heat

of this year’s Bedwells Feed Barn Star-Trek Series at Bathurst’s Group One Feeds Paceway on Wednesday.

Now in the Ashlee Grives barn at Bathurst, the Sportswriter four-year-old scored his fifth win from 13 trips to the races, and created a huge impression by carrying a flat tire for much of the race and still finishing right over the top of his rivals when he let down turning for home, to rate 1:55.4 for the 1730 metres distance of the heats.

He carries not only an iconic name, but some famous colours as well – those carried by Courage Under Fire, whose Queensland-based owner Greg Brodie has been a strong supporter of the Grives stable in recent years, supplying progeny of “Courage” on several occasions.

The other two heat winners on Wednesday were impressive, though not to the same extent, but like Whittaker NZ, there’s some interest and intrigue in their names.

Eliza Dushku NZ, which led throughout for Amanda Turnbull to take the second heat rating 1:56.2, is named for an American actor who starred in several television series including Buffy The Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel, and the Bettors mare completed a Bathurst hat-trick with this win.

Race favourite and runner-up Inner Light NZ, which was also shooting for a hat-trick after recent successes at Canberra, was bred by the Norwegian Wood Breeding Group, whose horses include Penny Lane, Paperback Writer, Eleanor Rigby and Strawberry Fields, dam of this Cullen gelding.

Buffy bested the Beatles on this occasion.

Redbelly Jack (Cameron Hart for Michael Xuereb), winner of the final heat in 1:56.4, after racing on the pegs mid-field, was always known as “Jack” around the stable during his education, but the prefix came about when a red-bellied black snake slithered across in front of him on the Riverstone training track one day . The owner’s naming task was easy after that.

His record now of six from 12 is even better than that of Whittaker, and the three heat winners will be strongly fancied to progress through next Wednesday ‘s semi-Finals to the final on Friday, November 10.

Street names and addresses provide yet another means of coming up with race names, and this is the method employed by the Melaleuca Lane Syndicate, which races one of the night’s two C0 winners , Flinders Lane (Anthony Winnell, for his father Kel).

The five-year-old broke maiden status at his twenty-sixth start, switched across the back of the leading bunch to secure a run along the inside in a clever piece of driving.

He’s currently flying the flag for a syndicate connected to the stable for about forty years, who’ve raced Kite Street and Edward Street (in neighbouring Orange) in the most recent season.

Brother-sister connections figured in three of the remaining winners at the meeting.

Bundaburra, trained by Peter Keogh, also broke a long string of outs in a C2-C5 2260 metres event, Jason Turnbull getting him around to the death in the slow early stages, and then enjoying the one-one when his sister Emma took that position from him with De Santa Anna soon after.

Bundaburra had the momentum in the driving finish, to get up in the night’s closest result.

Doug Hewitt handled the driving duties with the fast-class winner IzzyWatt, for his sister Gemma Rue, sitting in the second half of the field and enjoying the strong pace up front before letting down strongly in the straight, rating 1:57.3 for the longer 2260 metres trip, a good run second up.

Cameron Hart, after steering Redbelly Jack to a win earlier in the night, was quickly down to the presentation area to congratulate sister Ashley, who won with the C. Cross-trained Majestic American in the C0 final event, after leading throughout.

It was the first win for the four-year-old son of Group One winner For Dear Life, and the third driving win for Ashley, who was clearly chuffed by the win and equally delighted by the ringing praise from her very proud brother who publicly declared her to be “ a rising star, and the next big thing!”

Every girl deserves a brother like that!

Big Bill (Mat Rue for Dubbo trainer Peter Gavin) maintained his consistent form this term with a good front-running win in a C0/C1 sprint, skipping home in a 28-seconds final quarter for his second career win.

He’s a son of Big Jim, but it seems clear that his race name comes not from his dad, but from his own very large frame, which he’s finally growing into, with improved performances and future promise.