Colac Mare A Bolter In The Pack
The Age
Friday March 5, 2004
Amid the sea of cerise that will swamp Flemington on Monday for Lonhro's Melbourne farewell, there will be the odd splattering of black and gold. The wearing of these colours will be in no way an attempt to overshadow the grand occasion, but rather to celebrate another.
For, as the majority of racing fans will be willing Lonhro's familiar colours to the line in the Australian Cup, somewhere in the crowd will be a delighted and thoroughly proud bunch from Colac modestly wearing the little-known stable colours of trainer Roberta Maguire and feverishly urging on her mare, Sound Action.
Win, lose or draw, the group - consisting of Maguire, the mare's part-owners Pat Ladhams, his sons Chris and John and son-in-law Peter Foley, as well as the contents of several hired mini-buses from Colac - will have won at least one battle: the one against the odds just to be there in an Australian Cup.
``We are enjoying it so much at the moment," Maguire said this week. ``We love being where we're at. To be running in an Australian Cup against a Victoria Derby winner, a Melbourne Cup winner, a Caulfield Cup winner, a horse like Lonhro . . . well, it's like a dream."
On the face of it, the clash between race favourite Lonhro and second favourite Sound Action is one of racing's great mismatches. Lonhro is a magnificent entire: a nine-time group 1 winner; a winner of $4.7 million in prizemoney. He is valued at $10 million or even more and is owned by one of the wealthiest racing families in the land.
As for Sound Action, the figures don't quite add up so impressively. A mare who was a $2500 buy at a lowly mixed sale, she has won seven of her 11 runs, including the group 1 Australasian Oaks. Exactly a year ago, Lonhro was strolling away with the group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes at Warwick Farm while Sound Action won a class 1 race at Warrnambool.
But on Monday, as they come on to the track for the $1 million Australian Cup, the facts and figures fall away to nothing. They both have to get over 2000 metres at a speed that few horses in the land can sustain.
``This has been the aim since the spring when we had to put her away after her troubles that restricted her to just one spring run," Maguire said. ``I am not feeling nervous. In fact, I am quite confident and it actually feels funny saying that before a race like this, but I know her and I know she will give her all and run very well."
Although Sound Action is easily the best horse she has worked with, Maguire, who rides the mare in all her work, said she knew very early on in the horse's education that she was an elite galloper.
``The day she had her first start at Ararat, she was feeling her shins a little, she got her tongue over the bit and was never closer to the rail than four-wide. But she won and I said to the owners then that we should aim her at the Australasian Oaks.
``They thought I was dreaming, but I just knew she would go on. It was her nature I think. She is just such a delight."
Victory in such an illustrious Australian Cup would ensure Maguire's training career for the immediate future at least.
``I would like to expand. I am only working three horses at the moment, but I am trying to get a few more," she said.
Maguire is from Hobart but came to Victoria in the mid-1980s to pursue a career in showjumping. It did not take long before her love of showjumping horses became a love of thoroughbred racing.
Victory on Monday would also prove the highlight of jockey Wayne Hokai's career. Maguire admitted this week that she had been given ``advice" that Hokai was not up to riding at group 1 level, but she opted for the prolific country winner anyway.
``Like me, Wayne's probably never had an opportunity in such a race like this and the horse has performed very well for him, so it's a great chance for him as well," Maguire said. ``It could be the greatest day for both of us."
© 2004 The Age