Red Anchor has easy Derby win

Press, 5 November 1984, Page 45

Red Anchor has easy Derby win

Not even the most ardent of Red Anchor’s backers could have anticipated the ease of his Derby win at Flemington on Saturday.

From the moment his rider, Mick Dittman, asked him to go forward and join the leader, Gold Deck, with 400 m to go, Red Anchor had complete control. He reS'red just a little urging to w ahead and a couple of smacks with the whip, 200 m out, sent him away on his own.

National Gallery, after making a determined bid halfway down the straight, fell away four lengths from Red Anchor at the finish but came in two lengths clear, nevertheless, of the third placegetter, Clovelly Bay. Red Anchor, a chestnut colt unable once to find an owner, has won eight of his 13 starts and will be rested now with stake earnings of $744,020. ~

The horse, by Haunui Farm’s Sea Anchor from the English-bred Decoy Girl, was bred by Mr Peter Setchell, of Millfields Stud, Matamata, and came up for auction as a yearling at Wrightson Bloodstock’s Waikato sale.

Nobody seems to have taken much notice of him. He was knocked down to an overseas visitor but the interest of his prospective new owner evidently flagged quickly because he defaulted on payment, as little as it was.

For a time, Red Anchor languished on a Waikato farm. Anyone could have bought him. As it happened, he caught the eye of a Sydney trainer, Paul Sutherland, making one of his periodic visits to New Zealand.

Sutherland secured him for around $15,000 and passed him on to a group of clients of his stable while retaining for himself a small share in the horse. Sutherland won four races with Red Anchor from early January this year through to mid-June. It was then he advised the other owners he would be resting the colt. The other partners were keen for Red Anchor to continue racing. The disagreement resulted in the others buying Sutherland’s share in the horse — for a reported 5100,000 — and transferring the colt to Tommy Smith’s

stable. From Smith’s stable Red Anchor is unbeaten in five starts, the win on Saturday following one over 1200 m at Randwick on September 1, then, at nice intervals, the Moonee Valley Stakes over 1600 m, Caulfield Guineas (1600 m and W. S. Cox Plate, of 2050 m, and his first distance attempt which he managed so impressively. Red Anchor’s stake earnings are the highest for a three-year-old in Australia. Smith’s tally of Derby winners, now at 31, is also a record and one more than that of the famous old-time New Zealand trainer, Dick Mason. Smith had won four Victoria Derbys before this and he has to his credit nine A.J.C. Derbys, 11 Queensland Derbys, one South Australian Derby, two West Australian Derbys, two Australian Derbys and one Tasmanian Derby.

.The value now of Red Anchor, for further racing or breeding, would be hard to determine. The owners have declined an offer of $3,000,000. More bids for the horse seem certain.