Distinguished career ends for Our Mana

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 46

Distinguished career ends for Our Mana

By

JEFF SCOTT

Our Mana, one of New Zealand’s leading open class pacers in recent seasons, ended a distinguished career when he ran fifth in the Winter Cup Handicap at Alexandra Park on- Saturday evening. “It will be sad not to see him racing again but he’s lost a little bit of his kick,” said his Pukekohe trainer-driver, Colin de Filippi, yesterday.Turning, nine-years-old in August Our Mana will be let down by de Filippi over the next two weeks when the Schell HanoverTaimoni gelding will be returned to his Lobum owner, Mrs Jenny Barron, for his retirement During his four seasons of racing, Our Mana made astonishing progress after earlier being rejected by several trainers and being virtually given to Mrs Barron for a bargain sum of $2OO. Under de Filippi’s guidance and perseverance, Our Mana burst on the scene in the 1982-83 season, winning eight of his 12 starts. He made early headlines by winning his first three races on the West Coast Christmas circuit to capture the inaugural $lO,OOO bonus there, then

ington, five at Alexandra Park, twice at Cambridge carried on to take a 1:57.3 mile record at the end of his debut season, this being enough for him to gain "Four-Year-Old of the Year”, honours over the New Zealand Messenger winner. Hilarious Guest .> " He went on to reach open class rating in his 15th career start the next season and went close to winning a major cup on three occasions. : The 1985 Lion Brown Easter Cup winner was the runner-up in the 1984 and 1985 New Zealand Cups behind Camelot and Borana respectively, and the 1984 Auckland Cup behind Enterprise; The $450 he won for running fifth oh Saturday was Our Mana’s / 69th cheque in 96 career outings. He won 20 of those, was second , 16 times, and third 12 times, for earnings of $331,900.. :

The best horse de Filippi has trained, he also rated him “as good as any he has driven.” Our Mana, which also numbered two Lion Red Miles at Cambridge and the Group Three Castlemaine XXXX Handicap (now the Henkell Trocken Handicap) at Alexandra Park among his best wins, won seven times at Add-

and Waterlea, and once each at Westport, Reefton, Greymouth and Methven. The first racing venture for Mrs Barron, she has since purchased a Besta Fella yearling filly called Besta Dream, selected by Colin and to be trained by his brother, Michael, at Broadfield, while Mrs Barron, and her husband, Roger, have the trotter, Yankee Derby, leased to Ivan Schwamm’s stable. Cuddle Me Doo Also retired from racing over the last week was the C 5 mare, Cuddle Me Doo, which was returned to her Ashburton breeders, Keith and Bevan Grice, by her lessee, Tim Brosnan. “She had a bit of filling in a leg and rather than let her go sore or risk breaking her down, it was decided to send her home,” said Keith Grice. The five-year-old daughter of Noodlum and Anna Pavlova raced only 30 times for five wins and 10 minor placings for $31,965 in stakes. 1 A 2:00 race-winning three-year-old filly earlier in her career, Cuddle Me Doo is a half-sister to the 1:53.8 North American miler, Bahrein, and to Derby, New Zealand’s fastest ever Cup class

graduate. The Grice brothers have leased Anna Pavlova’s yearling filly by Mark Lobell, named Exciting, to Mr Dewar Robertshaw, the president of the New Zealand Trotting Conference. Exciting has joined Richard Brosnan’s Kerrytown stable: Tim Brosnan has leased Anna Pavlova’s two-year-old brother to Derby (by El Patron) called Mainbrace, while Stunning, a three-year-old brother to Cuddle Me Doo was an impressive qualifier recently for the Brosnan stable. Really Honkin back The East Eyreton trainer, Brian O’Meara, has had the speedy but unsound - six-year-old, Really Honkin (1:56.9), back in work for two months with. pleasing results. The Honkin Andy gelding has been off the racing scene since May last year after being badly affected by a virus. O’Meara’s top four-year-old, Trident, has been back in work for a month after a let-up following the InterDominion championships back in late February, early March.