My Axeman storms home to win Doomben feature

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 28

My Axeman storms home to win Doomben feature

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney

My Axeman, dubbed the ugly duckling of the Brisbane carnival, totally outclassed his rivals as he flew home to take the Rothmans 100,000 at Doomben on Saturday.

In what critics described as an amazing display of power and speed, the rejuvenated New Zealander stormed home to take the $122,500 sprint by two and a half lengths. The big chestnut gelding, carrying the scars from fractious behaviour, has been described by some Brisbane turf-watchers as the ugliest horse they have ever seen.

However, his trainer, Kevin Griffin, said after the race: “To me he is the greatest and best-looking thoroughbred I’ve ever clapped eyes on.” A little-fancied Canadianbred local gelding, Lord Sambeau, stunned the punters and had the bookies ecstatic when he stormed to the lead in the straight and at 125-1 looked to have the race sewn up. However, first the New Zealander, Brenlaine, the Elders Handicap victor two weeks ago, took' over before My Axeman turned on the power and flashed past, while Lord Sambeau found something extra to come again and beat Brenlaine to the post by a length. My Axeman immediately rewrote the favouritisms for this week’s $175,000 Fourex Cup and dispelled any fears that he was not up to his best.

The six-year-old showed no signs of the back ailment

that kept him a disappointing eighth in the Elders Handicap a fortnight ago, and he was fired up when he went out for an effortless sprint on Thursday morning. With his jockey, Warwick Robinson, keeping My Axeman back in the field instead of up front as in the Elders Handicap, the big New Zealander stormed home.

Bookmakers immediately halved his odds for the Fourex Cup, and the handicapper will decide how much to penalise him by for the 2200 m race.

The expected increase will be the 2kg that Prince Majestic was penalised for his Tattersall’s Cup win last week.

The attitudes of the other jockeys to My Axeman’s win was summed up by Brenlaine’s rider, Gavan Duffy, who said later: “Brenlaine had a good run early and I headed Lord Sambeau half way up the straight, but then along came My Axeman and the race was shot to bits.” Brenlaine’s trainer, Graeme Rogerson, said he was happy with his charge’s performance, but he would now be taken home to New Zealand.

“It was a good run, and I think' the draw probably beat him,” Rogerson said. “He drew the outside and covered 10 lengths more than Axeman, which started in the middle — but that’s racing.” Brenlaine has more than paid his way on this trip with his Elders Handicap win, his third on Saturday, and a third in the Power Hotels Quality at the end of

May netting a total of about SNZISO,OOO in stakes, according to Rogerson.

The trainer’s two other charges, Sir Riverton and Nostradamus, have added to the “kitty” to bring the total to more than SNZ2OO,OOO for the campaign. Nostradamus also won on Saturday, in the 2020 m Delaney Graduation Stakes, and will line up in the Grafton Cup north of Brisbane before returning to New Zealand to prepare for the Metropolitan in Sydney in October, and then go on to Melbourne. Fourth home in the Rothmans on Saturday was the New Zealand-bred Uno Petera, trained by a former New Zealander, Brian Smith.

Uno Petera’s jockey, Peter Cook, said that Uno Petera had every chance. “I had a perfect run and at the top of the straight I came out to win, but My Axeman simply flew past me,” he said. Uno Petera came an improved Open the Door, which showed his liking for the dry going after a series of also-rans over three previous races. Open the Door is being trained by an Australian, Dave Sweeney, for his New Zealand owners.

A disappointment of the race was So Dandy, which did much better than his recent form on the wet Queensland tracks, but his trainer, Keith Opie, puzzled about the way he walked to the line for seventh, after showing plenty of promise in the early stages of the 1350 m journey. The other big race on the card was the Fourex Handicap over 2200 m, but it provided little comfort for trainers working on a final warmup for next week’s big

Fourex Cup race, when a former sprinter humbled a field of class stayers.

Lord Seaman, a five-year-old gelding having his first distance outing, cleared out with the $25,000 race, downing a fistful of Kiwis, headed by Bound To Honour, and some top local talent as well. Bound To Honour was a disappointing eighth, but her trainer, Marian Eivers, was not discouraged by the little mare’s run.

“She was top eight with 56kg and she’s only a small mare,” she said. “She’s

never been able to carry weight, and the track was heavy for her too.” Claymore Boy was second behind Lord Seaman, and followed home by the former New Zealander, Bidston Hill, which has been racing in Australia since February, then came Double You Em, Avitt and Hagenblu.