Rongonui strikes again in Winter Cup

Press, 14 August 1989, Page 30

Rongonui strikes again in Winter Cup

By

DAVID McCARTHY

Rongonui became only the sixth horse to win back-to-back Winter Cups, with his easy win in the $55,000 race at Riccarton on Saturday and most of the credit must go to his trainer, Warren Collett.

Collett himself was high in his praise of two riders of the horse, Brian Hibberd, who rode the grey superbly on Saturday (and who had done so with equal skill 12 months previously) and Lance O’Sullivan, who rode Rongonui in his most disappointing run of this campaign, in the Carbine Club Trophy race at Ellerslie in June.

“Lance told me he wasn’t putting his heart and soul into it and we should try him in blinkers. It’s made most of the difference and Brian has done the rest,” Collett, aged 34, said after the race. Rongonui raced in blinkers for the first time at Levin two weeks ago and ran second to Dad’s Gift. Hibberd had him beautifully placed behind St Rupert on Saturday and was wide on the better going at the right time before the turn. Collett’s opinion that the grey had never been better was vindicated as the pair came away to win easily in the end from the pacemaker with the unlucky Mr Spock rattling home for third.

Rongonui is the sixth horse to win

successive Winter Cups in 91 renewals of the race.

Catalogue, which won three, was first, followed by a trio of horses in the 1940 s in Bashful Lady; the great mare Soneri, which won her second race with 11 stone four pounds (71.5 kg and Julius Caesar during the 1948-49 season. The only other horse to do so since was Royal Warrant in 1955-56 though Cheyenne won two Winter Cups in 1958 and 1960. He did not start in 1959 but won the Brabazon that season.

Collett aimed Rongonui at the Winter Cup soon after last year’s triumph and was only briefly distracted from that assignment when he considered a Melbourne winter campaign.

He is likely to go to Australia this spring however, possibly for the Epsom Handicap at the Randwick spring meeting when Hibberd also has an engagement for Coshking in the sAust4ol,ooo Metropolitan Handicap. “He’s nominated for the Caulfield Cup. I don’t know he’ll get the 2400 m but I reckon he’ll get 2000 m in top company at least. And if all else fails we can come back for the Winter Cup,” Collett said. Collett, than based at Te Rapa, trained only Rongonui when he came south last year which was the grey’s second attempt on the race, having run ninth in

Fairfield Lad’s race in 1987. However, he recently shifted to a new establishment at Te Awamutu and is in the process of getting a full professional licence. He trained in partnership with his father, Laurie, about 10 years ago before taking a break from racing. Laurie Collett was the original trainer of Rongonui and urged his son into taking the horse when it came up for lease after one start as a two-year-old. Nine syndicate members, most employed at the Hamilton courthouse, leased the horse with a $15,000 right of purchase which was exercised just before Rongonui won the Whyte Handicap at Trentham last July.

The Rongonui team sent the Riccarton stewards’ stand out on a high note.

The stand, completed in 1907, has been a silent witness to many a.great Winter Cup battle but few groups of owners could have produced greater fervour over the last 300 m of the race than the large group of Rongonui supporters who cheered him home on Saturday. The stand is to be demolished this week to be replaced by a $5.5 million administration stand.

Brian Hibberd, who rode Payco to win a New Zealand Cup at Riccarton has enjoyed one of his best seasons, his major wins including his first big Austra-

lian victory on Coshking in the Brisbane Cup. St Rupert failed to give Debbie Healey her first big win at Riccarton but she felt he may have done in different circumstances.

“He has to have cover and when nothing came round he went too keenly,” she said. Healey was happy with the course St Rupert followed in the straight though it is possible the canny Hibberd, wider out, had an advantage.

Mr Spock missed the start and was making more progress than any in the final stages while Our High Noon ran on well wide out for fourth.

Satisfy blew out at the turn and wilted to ninth while the disputed riding engagement over St James and Exchequer amounted to past history at the end of the race, both finishing well back.

Johnson was held to have been engaged for Exchequer and was directed to ride that horse which finished twelfth. St James was two places behind, travelling well until the turn but running out of condition.

Johnson was fined $250 for accepting two rides in the race and Les Didham replaced him on St James. It seemed a pity no machinery could be put into action to settle the case much earlier than after the second race on the programme.