Battlers can still mix it with the big boys
Sun Herald
Sunday July 19, 2009
WHO said a sow's ear doesn't make a silk purse? Look at Schipper at Rosehill Gardens yesterday.And what about racing being the playground of the money men,with the battlers being priced out? Well, Tony Marney and Noel Daly didn't do a Manuan with Narwee but he was runner-up at 100-1 in the Sydney Markets Handicap.Marney, aged 54 by his own count, couldn't remember his last ride in town but he and Daly, 78, combined with former top-class sprinter Manuan, winner of The Galaxy at Randwick, in 1985.Home bred by Blevic, Narwee wouldn't have got a bid at the Sydney Easter sales in comparison with Metallurgical, which cost $2.2 million and was expected to return a dividend in the Blackberry Handicap.Metallurgical has been set for the stars in accordance with his price tag. After leaving the launching pad Metallurgical, the $3.40 favourite, hardly got off ground level. However, stablemate Schipper, unwanted in more ways than one, looked strong where it counted in the N and A Group Handicap.Both are members of Nathan Tinkler's squillion-dollar two-year-olds' team and Metallurgical was beaten over 10 lengths by the highly promising Rothesay, rated as "one of the most promising horses I've ridden in recent times", by jockey Corey Brown.Still, Schipper, starting at $17, gave Tinkler some balm after Metallurgical, and trainer Jason Coyle divulged that Schipper made her winning debut at Kembla Grange because she is "slightly built and wouldn't present good enough for town". Now, Coyle has no doubt about her engine, which takes a horse further than good looks.Obviously, Metallurgical has got be better than he showed yesterday but the Tinkler camp was befuddled with the failure. Mark Webbey, one of Tinkler's think tank and a foremost handicapper, declared before the race that Metallurgical was "something special", yet the horse went into reverse shortly after turning for home. Jockey Peter Robl couldn't make any excuses. "Hopefully it is just a bit too soon and he will make a late three-year-old," Robl said.The official vet reported Metallurgical was "exhausted" after the race, but Coyle felt the Redoute's Choice colt was too close to the lead and told Racing NSW stewards the two-year-old would be tried in blinkers, and ridden more quietly. Blinkers have been known to switch on reluctant types. Certainly they made Voice Coach look more like a gazelle in the Harris Farm Handicap, but it's hard to image them triggering Metallurgical, in the short term, to match Rothesay.Rothesay, passed in for $150,000 as a yearling, was having his first start, and trainer Gerald Ryan reckons he will be better over 1400 metres, the distance of his target, the $1 million Golden Rose, recently elevated to group 1, at Rosehill on August 29.Rothesay gave yesterday's Rosehill program a dash of quality, while the Narwee team gave it colour, showing old timers with a yen for a coup can still add their special ingredient.After the Narwee effort, Marney, one of the old windmill-style whip riders, asked chief steward Ray Murrihy whether he had contravened rules that will be introduced in August. Mahoney rode with the vigour of a jockey who had his own money on to top off superb earlier navigation, and still remembers what it was like to be compared with Des Lake and Bill Camer.
© 2009 Sun Herald