Reba Lord packs punch

Press, 20 November 1989, Page 37

Reba Lord packs punch

The New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club’s feature pacing free-for-all at Addington Raceway on Saturday evening also supplied a race of- high speed with Reba Lord dashing through from the trail to score decisively in a brilliant 1:58.5 mile rate for the mobile 2600 m. Reba Lord’s over-all time of 3:11.4, in the Christchurch Airport Travelodge Free-For-All, was 1.5 seconds quicker than the previous New Zealand pacing record set by Lightning Blue in the 1987 Inter-Dominion Final at Addington.

The quickest mile rate for the nearest Australian equivalent, 2610 m mobile at Launceston, Tasmania, is held by Quite Famous at 1:59.9. Sinbad Bay

rated a faster 1:57.5 record for the shorter 2500 m mobile distance in last season’s Golden Nugget Final for four-year-olds at Gloucester Park, Perth. “The Adelaide InterDominions will be his main mission this season. He will start in the Auckland Cup because the stake is too good not to consider but he is not a good standing start horse,” said Reba Lord’s winning reinsman, Mark Purdon.

Twelve months ago Purdon, a son of Reba Lord’s senior trainer, Roy Purdon, and brother of co-trainer, Barry Purdon, reined Tax Credit to an upset win in the N.Z. Free-For-All after finishing unplaced in the N.Z. Cup. Reba Lord, an attrac-

tive five-year-old entire by the defunct Johnny Globe stallion, Lordship, missed last Friday’s Air N.Z. Free-For-All with a bout of colic, but had run a better race in the DB Draught New Zealand Cup than many realise. After tangling at the start, Reba Lord was another sufferer in the skirmish with 450 m to run, being broken up when “going good” according to Purdon. “He gobbled up three or four in the straight after that,” said Purdon.

Reba Lord, now the winner of 11 races in 32 starts for $118,995, was initially trained at Stratford by Graham Bradley, but was purchased by the Raceway Reba Syndicate at the end of his three-year-old racing. The Christchurch Air-

port Travelodge Free-For-All was an all North Island act with Bold Sharvid, which had the run of the race on the outer, finishing, on to place for the third time in as many starts at the meeting. The gallant pacemaker, Gypsy Vance, was cut back to third a half-neck away after setting up a hectic clip from the outset. Final Offer ran on for his promoted fourth placing, while the" well-sup-ported Victorian, Another Bart, dropped away after moving up to be in the open over the last 1800 m. “I was a little disappointed in him. I didn’t knock him about when he’d had enough but he’s had a lot of hard racing. I’ll just freshen him up for the Adelaide InterDominions,” said Another Bart’s part-owner, trainer and driver, Gary Barton.