It's not the winning or the losing, but the participation.
That piece of sporting philosophy has always been followed by the Sanders family and on Saturday the family's stable landed one of its biggest triumphs with 55-1 shot Elevenses in the One Thousand Guineas at Riccarton.
"I didn't really think we could beat the top ones," said Graeme Sanders who trains in partnership with daughter Debbie.
"But racing is full of people who don't want to run against the best.
"She is a good three-year-old filly. I had set her for the classics, she had done everything right, and I told the owners that even if the field looked too tough we were going to have a go."
Several of those 11 owners - women racing enthusiasts in a "no males" syndicate with a name to suit - travelled from the Waikato to Christchurch on Saturday hoping for at least a fifth placing, which earned some of the stake money.
Instead they went home queens of the turf as Elevenses, unwanted in the Karaka sale ring as a yearling, powered down the outside in the hands of Mark Sweeney to swamp the stars.
"I must be the only trainer in the country keeping 11 women happy at the same time," Sanders quipped.
Debbie Sanders, girlfriend of Sweeney, was in charge of the filly at the meeting.
She and her mother Gail are also members of the syndicate.
So is Pam Grylls, mother of Waikato jockey Gary; Joy Robinson who once brought her father's high class galloper Johnny Cash to Riccarton for a narrow defeat in the old Inter-Island feature and Beth Walker, whose husband, Ramsay, is a Te Awamutu club stalwart and who raced the high class galloper Reklaw.
The One Thousand Guineas was promoted as the clash of the year among the fillies.
It didn't work out that way but there was no shortage of drama.
In one incident the saddle of favourite Diamond Cashel slipped out of position, which put her out of the contest after 500m. Vinny Colgan, rider of second favourite Spring Rain, copped a four-day suspension for moving in too sharply on other runners after about 350m. It was said this led to the slipped saddle of Diamond Cashel.
Sweeney was relieved of $300 for waving to the public at the winning post.
Chimeara, widely tipped to test the stars, took the unexpected role of front runner, sprinting her first 600m in a sensational 33.5 seconds, "easing" to the 800m in 45.6secs.
Verlei, who had beaten the older females so impressively at her previous start, was retreating at the 800m and Spring Rain after having "every chance", according to Colgan, just battled over the final stages.
Canterbury-trained filly Flint Star briefly looked likely to produce the big boilover but weakened a shade to finish third. Second went to Singalong.
Elevenses is now set for the New Zealand Oaks in January. She is bred on the same Star Way-Sir Tristram cross as 1992 winner Nimue.
Singalong and Diamond Cashel will both back up in the Two Thousand Guineas on Wednesday, but Spring Rain will not.
Singalong tended to hang in the straight, according to rider Noel Harris.
"She may have been feeling the track but it is hard to say."
* * *
Don't expect a big weight penalty for Fritz's brilliant win in the Flying Stakes when he chases a $100,000 bonus in the Stewards Handicap at Riccarton next Saturday.
Handicapper Rex Johnston will not decide the crucial weight issue for Fritz until today but 58.5kg or 59kg looks a likely rating instead of the record 60kg some were predicting.
If that seems generous after Fritz's annihilation of virtually the same field with 58kg in the Flying Stakes - there is normally a 1.5kg penalty for a win - there is a catch.
"I kept 1kg up my sleeve, so to speak, in the Flying Stakes," Johnston said. "By that I mean there was some leeway near the minimum to keep a distance between lower grade horses. I weighted the class four and open horses from 51kg.
"In a race like the Stewards (group three) they will drop to the 50kg minimum which brings the top weighted horses back.
Fritz has now won two legs of the sprinters' bonus and Canterbury trainer Neil Coulbeck had some good news for his owners, John and Liz Austin and George and Robyn Ritchie.
"I think I've left some improvement in him," Coulbeck said of last season's Telegraph Handicap winner and South Island Horse of the Year.
Fritz's time of 55.68 seconds on Saturday for the 1000m did not break his own track record of 55.24s when he won the race last year.
Oddly enough a faster time of 55.44secs was recorded earlier in the day by filly Flying Babe in a $20,000 race for two-year-old fillies.
In the process Flying Babe collected a $25,000 bonus connected with the race.
- NZPA
Racing: Elevenses wins action-packed 1000 Guineas at Riccarton
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