Racing: Amazing Me's win leaves locals with bitter taste

Ruakaka was still not the happiest place to be for two of the region's major players yesterday.

As if waking without the six figures in bonuses Jazzella had at her mercy for winning Saturday's triple-crown climax, the Northland Breeders Stakes, wasn't bad enough, a near voiceless co-trainer Dean Logan was also nursing a killer flu.

While nearby, local colleague Kenny Rae was still seething from his maiden filly Seven Hills being sensationally relegated from first for causing interference to eventual winner Amazing Me in the same race.

Logan, who is also president of the Whangarei Racing Club, was doing his best to see the positives.

While punters took a thrashing on Jazzella's running third, he's convinced the club is on to a winner with the newfound buzz around the $100,000 triple-crown for any horse who can win its juvenile races in May, June and July.

He's also confident that Jazzella, who won the first two of those races so impressively, will bounce back to be a serious threat in the feature 3-year-old fillies events, including her main mission this year, the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton in November.

But Logan still can't help but wonder what would have happened on Saturday if the Ruakaka gates had opened when most riders, horses and fans in the stand thought they would.

"It could have been a whole different scenario," said Logan, who at least had the consolation of sharing a $10,000 trainers' bonus with partner Donna Logan for winning the triple-crown points prize.

"She fair whacked it and that changed the whole pattern of the race. She definitely didn't jump as well as she normally does the next time.

"I was very confident we could win but it just goes to show how hard it is to win three races in a row."

Logan said rider Catherine Treymane, who had not taken any raceday rides between Jazzella's June 21 win and Saturday's race for fear of missing the Breeders' mount, also reported being nearly blown over by the wind on the corner.

"You also wonder if we were in the right place on the track," said Logan. "A race later they were coming wider for the better going.

"But what are you supposed to do when a race before you they are winning on the rail?"

Logan said he was more devastated for Rae and owner Lars Pearson, who had made a special trip from Singapore to watch his filly.

"I thought it was a marginal decision - the best horse won the race," said Logan.

"I didn't have the privilege of seeing the judicial video, but it didn't look like there was a lot in it.

"I've seen a lot worse and nothing's changed."

Chief stipe Alan Coles alleged rider Cameron Lammas took a gap on Seven Hills inside the final 200m that wasn't there. And he is adamant that the resulting bumps to Amazing Me, who finished half a length back at the line, cost him the race.

At the request of Amazing Me's hobby trainer Brent Gillovic, trainer Graeme Rogerson represented the horse's Hong Kong part-owner Peter Yip in the inquiry room.

"The only thing that won it for them was Rogerson in the inquiry room," Rae said.

"He shot everyone down to pieces - it was bullshit

"If anything, I'm a pessimist who usually acknowledges when he's been beaten fair and square, but that absolute rubbish ..."

Rae, who had yet to win a race for Larsen in the 18 months they have worked together, had desperately wanted to win the Breeders'.

Ironically, he said it was a Rogerson-trained runner who proved the undoing of his raging hot favourite a few years back, Egyptian Raine, when taking her on in the lead.

If there is a Breeders' consolation for Rae, who won the very next race with Camilla, it's that he never expected Seven Hills to show anything like the form she has at two.

He admits he arrived on course on Saturday with Seven Hills expecting, at best, to run second to Jazzella.

"I never thought she was quite good enough," said Rae. "I always thought she'd be a better 1600m horse at three.

"I actually thought my other horse [Faalcon] was a better chance in the race but he hit the gates hard the first time and raced like a stunned mullet."

While Jazzella and Seven Hills are aimed at the early 3-year-old classics, controversial winner Amazing Me is now likely to head to Hong Kong for his future racing.

Gillovic, who runs Highview Stud near Hamilton, said the Deputy Governor colt needed only to run in the first three on Saturday to qualify.