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Spikecity

Interesting read from Allstars webpage

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Why can't other top stables keep there websites up to date instead of two or three weeks behind the times?

 

 

Many who battle along with a horse who runs middle of the road fractions in middle of the road fields must dream of the day they get the big one-the budding champion who could change their life.

If and when that happens they often find it also brings a whole lot of decisions and worry they had not counted on when urging their stable best around the smalls.

Mark Purdon has identified with that truth for a long time now-but it doesn’t make those decisions any easier.

With Oscar Bonavena, in fact he is finding it very difficult.

Oscar could be one of the best trotters Mark has trained-if not the best if his present brilliant potential is fully exploited.

But to do that patience is the name of the game-and it could mean passing up some very large purses in the next few months-a sacrifice now for later triumphs

Oscar has already missed the $30,000 Flying Mile at Ashburton and it now seems more than likely he may miss the NZ Trotting Free For All on NZ Cup day, a final decision Mark is not looking forward to making even if he is most of the way there.

Meanwhile the Inter Dominion Championships at Auckland are also on the doubtful list.

“Its a tough call, the Free for All, a Group 1 race after all”Mark said

“Its also a $100,000 race the owners may miss. But with these sort of horses you have to think in the long term and also in what you want to achieve in the short term.”

Always the perfectionist, Mark sent Oscar Bonavena away from a mobile last week at Addington. His performance astonished a lot of people-but Mark, who knows how good he could be-wasn’t happy with one aspect.

“He got keen there for a while and I have just about decided to keep to standing starts until after the Dominion Handicap on Show Day (which is a stand).

“He has been ok from the gate once settled in a field and being in front affected him last week. But I want to keep him in a relaxed frame of mind going into a Dominion”

“There’s quite a bit to it making a decision like that and about the Inter Dominions, but the horse comes first. He is a star in the making but he is in the making and anything going wrong at this stage could set him back. There’s a lot in front of him”’

That leaves Winterfell as the likely hope of the side in the Inter Dominions following the retirement of Luby Lou though Oscar remains in the rankings.

Oscar Bonavena’s potential has never been underrated around the stable. Natalie who drove him in the Harness Jewels not long after he was bought out of the Williamson stable said on that day even though he made mistakes and finished well back “he will be a top horse one day” though she now jokes that she has no chance of getting in his cart again.

There are two types of trotters-the week in week out warriors always in contention and threatening the elite trotters-and the ones with elite brilliance, such as Monbet in his prime and now Sundee’s Son and Oscar Bonavena. The brilliant ones tend to be just a little more fragile and need a little more careful handling, at least until they are fully mature- and that is behind Mark’s thinking.

One thing is in his favour. His dad Roy features in the ownership with Chris Ryder -so he is not going to cause any problems!

Training horses is a series of ongoing decisions and being flexible is the secret. So plans are rarely set in concrete. But passing up the pre-Dominion mobiles and not asking Oscar to then go through the heats and final Inter Dominion regime is likely in favour of the long term potential of a special horse.

Of such stuff are great trainers made.

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