Mick on Monday: West Coast makes case for best-ever jumper with Great Northern Steeplechase win

West Coast won the Great Northern Steeplechase at Te Rapa. Photo / Kenton Wright, Race Images

There was a moment of doubt for West Coast fans in yesterday’s $150,000 Great Northern Steeplechase.

There often are in the biggest jumping races. After all, every jump could be race-ending, as Berry The Cash showed when brought down in the Great Northern Hurdle two hours earlier.

But the moment of vulnerability for wonder jumper West Coast had nothing to do with the fences. It never does, he flies them barely breaking stride, like he enjoys the challenge.

West Coast makes jumping look fun.

The doubt came 1200m from home in our most gruelling equine test when rider Shaun Fannin had to ask West Coast to chase, as first Renegade Fighter and then last year’s runner-up Captain’s Run edged away from him.

Had two years of our hardest form of racing carrying enormous weights finally caught up with him? Was West Coast about to take the off-ramp on his road to being our best-ever jumper?

Answer: No.

Fannin asked for, rather than demanded, West Coast’s best and he did what champions do. He ran through the pain barrier, stretched his anaerobic threshold and galloped into a club all of his own.

Is he our best-ever jumper? There isn’t a person alive with enough knowledge to definitively answer that.

But he is very, very special and not finished yet, with trainer Mark Oulaghan suggesting he may take West Coast to Australia next year to try to conquer the famous Warrnambool carnival.

Also special is Fannin, an understated scientist of his craft, who became our most successful Great Northern Steeples jockey with his sixth win in our toughest race.

Oulaghan declared West Coast the best jumper he has trained, a huge statement from a man who dislikes huge statements.

This monster truck of a horse has now won two Great Northern Steeplechases and three Grand Nationals and if he doesn’t head to Australia next year that total could be four Grand Nationals and three Great Northerns this time next year.

That should not be possible. But as he reminded us all yesterday, the rules don’t apply to West Coast.

Hurdle upset

West Coast’s stablemate Berry The Cash was robbed of his chance to win the Great Northern Hurdles when bought down a lap from home.

Invisible Spirit clipped a fence and crashed with Berry The Cash having nowhere to go but straight into him.

Both horses and their jockeys were unhurt.

But the favourite crashing out shouldn’t detract too much from the win of Lord Spencer, who was brilliant in the home straight for trainer JJ Rayner and jockey Lemmy Douglas.

A winner of just two of his 35 career starts before yesterday, Lord Spencer discovered an unlikely turbo boost at the top of the straight that saw him fly past Mont Ventoux just when the latter looked home.

It was a fitting win as earlier in the day Lord Spencer sire, Zed, also the sire of Melbourne Cup heroine Verry Elleegant, sadly passed away after complications from colic.

Speaking of Melbourne Cups, Sharp N Smart looked on track to at least turn up in that iconic race with a brave second in the open 1600m yesterday, his highest placing since winning the New Zealand Derby on this same track 18 months ago.

Co-trainer Debbie Rogerson says the 5-year-old is booked to head to Melbourne on October 2, giving him the option of racing here at least once more before he crosses the Tasman.

Party time

Former age group star pacer Republican Party returned with an all-the-way win in the Hannon Memorial at Oamaru yesterday, confirming his place in November’s New Zealand Cup.

He was already as good as in the November 12 Cup, being ranked 10th courtesy of his Auckland Cup placing in May but yesterday sealed the deal.

The horse who flashed home and almost beat him yesterday, Pinseeker was rated only 39th in the rankings so he should be a big mover when they are reassessed this week.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s racing editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.