Sobay—Piggott’s last win in New Zealand

Press, 25 February 1985, Page 34

Sobay—Piggott’s last win in New Zealand

From J. J. BOYLE Auckland . Lester Piggott made one of his long pauses and in a nasal mutter said: “She was a bit lazy, and I had to pick her up a bit in the last 600 m, but she got there.” That was a long speech for the English champion jockey but it was readily uttered by the 50-year-old phenomenon of the racing world after he rode Sobay to a narrow win in the second leg of the Auckland Racing Club’s T.A.B. double at Ellerslie on Saturday. A big Ellerslie crowd had to wait for Piggott’s sixth appearance on the programme for that win. Almost certainly it will also be his last win on a New Zealand course, a piece of racing history that will get due recognition in Auckland Racing Club records and perhaps even more profitably in family records if and when progeny of this Stratford-trained speedster come on to the market. The man who rode his first winner before most people were born (August 18, 1948) has enjoyed his New Zealand visit so much that he has extended his stay by one day. This morning he will return to Australia to ride first in Tasmania and later in Melbourne. Then he will fly to Hong Kong and ride at meetings there before re-

turning home to prepare for what might be his last English flat season as a race rider. One has to marvel at the stamina of the man, but his keenness to move in to the Southern Hemisphere in the “off’ season has become a defensive measure after some grim early struggles with weight. After finding during one English winter that his weight had shot up to 11 stone, Piggott, had to take punishing measures to get down to his minimum Bst 51b, and after he did so he remarked: “I’ll never let myself get heavy again.” That self discipline has been matched by an impressive combination of horseman’s skills — ability to coax, command and persuade as the occasion demands and to quickly adapt to the demands of strange courses all over the world. True, like everyone else he needs a generous measure of co-operation in the way of ability and motivation from his mounts, and in early races on Saturday Piggott backers were wondering if they were in for a proper drubbing. There was an excuse for Piggott’s second mount, Redanthony, which was eased right out of the race and came back very lame, but all the way along the line until Sobay obliged there

was nothing to resemble the 1980 Air New Zealand Stakes day when Piggott landed four winners including Arbre Chene in the feature race. Piggott’s mount for this year’s Air New Zealand Stakes was So Dandy, but the Te Aroha-trained chestnut showed on Saturday that ability at 2000 m is not one of his particular, talents. He faded fast from a trailing position and Piggott did not punish him needlessly when clearly beaten. “He’s no 2000 m horse,” Piggott remarked later. The Filbert, the winner of the Air New Zealand Stakes, will be prepared later this year for a bid to win the Caulfield Cup for his Taranaki owners, Messrs John Goodman, Vic French, and Reece and Clem Gilbert. He won two races in Melbourne, one of them on the Caulfield track last spring, and after the major success of his career on Saturday his connections aired their confidence in the ability of the four-year-old to hammer home another lesson about a bargain missed. The Filbert (by Souvran) was passed in at $2OOO as a yearling at the Waikato sale.

Mr Goodman, a Taranaki farmer, took the first step in the chain of events leading to the emergence of The

Filbert when he instructed his wife, Shirley, to go to $3OOO for the Faux Tirage mare, Tittle Tattle, at a mixed sale at Trentham. “I was a bit naughty,” Mrs Goodman said on Saturday. "I bid up to $3lOO to get the mare, which was carrying to Zamazaam. The foal was The Filbert’s dam, Fauxzann, which had only a handful of starts without winning. Garry Phillips, who partnered The' Filbert on Saturday, arrived in Auckland on Saturday morning. Earlier in the week the Foxton horseman rode at Wingatui, Greymouth, and at race trials in his home town. “I’ve always had a big opinion of this horse, but he has taken a bit of time to strengthen, and I had to learn that he does not respond well to the whip,” Phillips said on Saturday. The Filbert races from the Couchman stable at Hawera. Silver Elm, the runner-up, and Shifnal Prince, third, are trained in the Manawatu so the race was a triumph for the Central Districts. Abit Leica, from Stratford, came with his usual rush late in the piece for fourth, but Silver Elm’s stablemate, Commissionaire, was one of the big disappointments of the race with his distant eleventh.