Phillipa Rush out for season

Press, 30 March 1989, Page 31

Phillipa Rush out for season

PA Auckland The top filly Phillipa Rush is out for the rest of the season after her Sires’ Produce Stakes failure on Monday. Her owner-trainer, Jim Campin, will resist the temptation to redeem the filly’s reputation by tackling the $50,000 Fillies’ Classic at Avondale on April 25. Phillipa Rush will have a clean break before being prepared for the Cavanagh and Lowland Stakes, the first two Wrightson “Filly of the Year” races, next term.

She was “noticeably sore” in her off-shoul-der after Monday’s race at Ellerslie but Campin says the injury in itself was not enough to force her out.

“She’s certainly a lot less sore than after Matamata (on February 18). My initial feeling was to get her ready for Avondale, take her up there two days before the race, and let her show just what she’s capable of. But longterm, I think a break is in her best interests.

“I had her set for the Sires’ Produce, we missed, so that’s it.” Campin believes the ease with which Phillipa Rush won her previous five races helped unstitch her at Ellerslie.

“I think she got hyped up mentally and, for the first time in her life, she couldn’t do exactly what she wanted. “When Lance (O’Sullivan) went to take hold of her, she didn’t know what to do.”

Phillipa Rush pulled hard in'her preliminary and Campin says the normally docile Before Monday’s Sires’ Produce, Campin thought he had Phillipa Rush at her absolute peak but now he says she may have been “too well.”