Racing: Basil goes one better this time

You would think Bevan Laming would dislike Australia intensely.

He loves the place and after St Basil won Saturday's A$1 million Stradbroke Handicap in Brisbane, all of Australia loves Laming and his remarkable horse.

Laming was born in Phar Lap country near Timaru and was working in Lionel Pratt's stable at 13.

Today you look at Laming's solid, tallish frame under his lived-in face and you'd lay bets it wasn't the same one that rode eight winners before late-maturing growth put him out of the saddle.

Bevan Laming, 62, has always had vision. Thirty years ago he worked out that New Zealand racing was going to land in trouble because of the Government's refusal to offer real help. He should have stood for Parliament instead of taking his team to Australia.

The first trip was a disaster.

"I took a horse over for the Derby at Randwick, which in those days was in October and the Australian Jockey Club paid for everything. We went on the same plane as old Battle Heights."

Battle Heights won the Sydney Cup, but Laming arrived home with empty pockets.

"They tipped the float over on the way to the races and my horse didn't race."

He was determined to go back and a few years later he arrived in Melbourne with Super Dude, Lucifer Lad and Hasty Lad.

"They weren't good enough for Melbourne, so I floated them up to Queensland where the horses were 10 lengths behind the Melbourne form. They're not now, there's only three to four lengths difference today."

Laming came home only to sell up. Today he is a multimillionaire after struggling at times on the punt in New Zealand.

Part of his success came from luck after buying 36 hectares of land for a training establishment at Jacob's Well, between Brisbane and Surfer's Paradise. A few years ago an astonishing depth of a rare type of sand was identified on his property and Laming has a multimillion-dollar deal to mine it.

"It's going to last another 30 years, I won't see the end of it."

He is about to re-locate to 90ha at Jacob's Well and has 30ha at Cranbourne, where he trains a second team in Melbourne.

Laming has trained some smart horses, like his dual Brisbane Cup winner Desert Chill, but St Basil has always been his favourite.

Until Saturday afternoon, the angular grey was Australia's best horse than hadn't won a feature race, despite picking up half a million dollars in stakes.

"Barrier draws were threatening to ruin his career," said Laming. "He's drawn either 17, 18, 19, or 20 in every big race he's been entered for. He drew off the track when he ran second in the Stradbroke last year and should have won. I can tell you I wasn't impressed when he drew 20 this time."

You have to have a definitive plan when you draw very wide in a million-dollar race like the Stradbroke and Laming formulated his after hearing an on-course announcement at Eagle Farm one hour before the Stradbroke.

"Remarkably, Oliver Koolman [Warwick Farm trainer] told the stewards, who relayed it to the public, that he intended leading at all costs with his horse Hidden Dragon.

"We knew Dance Hero and Takeover Target were going to go forward from their wide barriers, so we made the decision to go forward with them."

St Basil was caught three wide just forward of mid-field when the first 800m was cut out in 45 seconds. He powered towards the leaders early in the home straight and for a rising 8-year-old produced a remarkable turbo for rider Michael Cahill and the pair easily beat outsider Perfect Promise, Shamekha and the luckless Patezza.

"No horse deserves a big win more than him. He ran third in the Salinger Stakes in Melbourne, being electronically timed to run his last 1000m in 54 seconds after coming out of the 18 gate."

Laming evenly divides his time between Queensland and Melbourne and occasionally takes St Basil south with him, although the grey's form is not as good racing the opposite, left-handed way.

"He leads off the wrong leg for Melbourne, but the money in the spring is down there. I hear the Salinger and the Emirates are possibly both going to a million dollars this spring, so he'll be there."

Laming was yesterday sorting out his thoughts for today's A$500,000 Brisbane Cup.

"I think it's between Zingham and Portland Singa. The last eight winners of the Brisbane Cup have raced in the week leading up and Portland Singa hasn't done that, but he's still a big hope. Zingham has had a good preparation."