By Mike Dillon
Big dollars looked just around the corner for Nothing Likea Tango when he scored a huge last-to-first win at Avondale yesterday, but it could be a fairly big corner.
Trainer Royce Dowling says he's going to keep the handbrake half on for a while.
He has the multi-million dollar raceday at Randwick next Easter in mind for the massive late 3-year-old and will resist the temptation for big money for the remainder of this year.
"I want to get him qualified for those races as far as stakemoney is concerned, which means I'll have to take him to Sydney some time this year, but I'm going to keep him away from the big races meantime, because he's not ready for it yet," said Dowling.
"He's good enough to have tackled the Guineas races this season, but he's a giant - 17.2 hands - and I've waited for him.
"And I'm prepared to wait even more. He's good enough to win anything."
And he looked it yesterday. On a track with a leader's bias, Nothing Lika Tango looked a hopeless chance when last behind a packed field on the home turn.
Peter Johnson showed his experience when he resisted the temptation to go wide and shot Nothing Lika Tango down the rails. The gaps opened on cue and Johnson did not have to push the classy chestnut in the closing stages.
The previous three wins had been on soft or heavy tracks, but Dowling was unconcerned on yesterday's firm footing.
"When he develops he'll handle it rock hard."
Dowling also tips the big bloke to be a top stayer.
"His granddam Limitless won the 3200m Brisbane Cup and his dam, Nothing Less was just as good, but she went through a fence, injured herself and didn't race."
O'Sullivan looks afield for rides
Lance O'Sullivan takes up a two-week Singapore riding contract next week and says he can't wait.
"I can't get rides here," said the 10-times champion jockey in frustration at Avondale yesterday.
The one rider who almost never sat in the jockeys' room during a race before his major accident 18 months ago, had only four rides at Avondale's 11-race programe, winning two of them.
"I've got only three rides at Rotorua on Saturday and I couldn't get a ride in the Rotorua Cup.
"One day last week I made 10 calls for rides and got one mount.
"It's not as though I'm riding badly. What doesn't help is that many of the stables I generally ride for haven't got runners at the moment."
* O'Sullivan rode cleverly to win on Early Belle and Our Moll Flanders.
Trainer Laurie Laxon slammed the rule that forces juvenile Early Belle to race as a 3-year-old against older horses because she was born four days earlier than the tradional August 1 deadline at Auckland's Haunui Farm
"It's ridiculous. The calculation should be worked out on the date of service, not the birth," said Laxon.
"If the service was within the normal timeframe, then if they're born early it means they're premature and are disadvantaged, not advantaged.
"There should be avenues of appeal on these things."
By Bigstone from the Sir Tristram mare Wishing Belle, Early Belle had a pedigree to make her into a valuable broodmare and Laxon is disappointed the regulation means she will miss the massive opportunities available in what would have been her regular 3-year-old career.
"She'll have to try for black type in fillies and mares races later on."
Horse Racing: Dowling's patience paying off with budding stayer
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