Racing: $200 horse Wee Biskit puts icing on cake

A mud-splattered Isaac Lupton manages a smile as he returns to scale on Wee Biskit.Picture / Trish Dunell

Yes, $100,000 Schweppes Great Northern Hurdles winner Wee Biskit was bought off Trade Me for $200.

Is that the right way to buy horses?

There is no right way. Good horses come from anywhere, not just the hype and glamour of million dollar bids in the sale ring.

This one gives credence to the beautiful line that "out of the shadows come heroes". In terms of a racehorse, a $200 bid on Trade Me magnificently qualifies for the shadow and there was only one hero of the Hurdles at Ellerslie, Wee Biskit, who was so dominant she was almost literally the only horse still galloping in the closing stages on a track that was as heavy and testing as anyone could remember Ellerslie being.

Owner Ken Duncan can thank Wee Biskit for getting him into a training career. The Hunterville farmer bought Wee Biskit as a polo pony, but didn't like her front-leg action, which he considered too high for polo, so thought about racing her.

When the mare finished last in her first three raceday starts for a professional trainer, Duncan took her home.

"I thought I'd train her at home so it doesn't [financially] hurt so much."

The rest is history, but it required patience.

Isaac Lupton has four times ridden the winner of the Great Northern Steeples, but the Hurdles was not on his CV until Saturday. But he thought he'd made the wrong choice.

"Ken [Duncan] rang me some time back and asked me if I had a Northern Hurdle ride and I hadn't had an offer so I told him I'd ride the mare.

"Not long after, John Wheeler called, then Dummy Myers called and I started to wonder if I'd made the right choice. Everyone asked me why I'd want to ride Wee Biskit when she'd won only one race."

"From the shadows ...", but things looked bleak when Wee Biskit tailed the field with a round left to travel.

"I knew Ken didn't want me back that far," said Lupton.

With horses dropping away inside the last 800m, Wee Biskit circled most of the field and was galloping strongly. while almost all others, including the favourite Just Got Home, were struggling badly.

"There's not much of her, but her advantage is that she can skip over the fences, which is what you want in a long, testing race like this."

You could barely see Lupton for the mud caked on his face and neck.

Gagarin fought on bravely for second, but there was only one horse in the race and galloping as if she meant it in the closing stages.

Cody Singer said Just Got Home couldn't manage the track conditions.

To prove that luck can be fleeting in racing, 70 minutes later, Lupton flipped off Upper Cut on top of the Hill the last time in the Great Northern Steeplechase when travelling okay.

"The track was so deep his feet went into the mud on the landing side of the fence and he couldn't get them back out."

If you thought Lupton was painted in mud after the Hurdles you needed to see him after a face-first into the slop off Upper Cut. "I was so badly winded I hung over the rail for four or five minutes," he said.

Tough day at the office.