Racing: Group one win testament to speed and care

Its remarkable the number of thoughts conveyed by the sight of Kindacross getting over the line first in the $120,000 Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes at Awapuni.
For a start, what a remarkably resilient youngster Kindacross is.

Then:

* What a wonderful training feat by Mark Walker as it was Kindacross' eighth start, which had included some tough runs. To win a group one so convincingly at the end of such a campaign is a great tribute to care.

* How good blood will eventually come out. Kindacross dam Kindness is a sister to fine stayer and sire Sky Chase and granddam Vice Reign is a half sister to outstanding galloper Vice Regal.

* What a greatly improved rider Hayden Tinsley is. He has always had the talent, but he is just so much more settled and focussed these days.

* How much luck plays a part in every facet of racing. Tinsley had been engaged for runner-up Wahid earlier in the summer, but lost the ride when he chose not to ride another of Allan Sharrock's horses.

Then he got on Kindacross only when Noel Harris elected to swing the way of Pulcinella after taking the Ford 2YO Classic at New Plymouth on Kindacross.

* What a gutsy horse Wahid is. You could see from the 200m he was not going to pick the winner up, but he never stropped trying and ever so slightly ate into the winner's lead every stride of the last 100m.

* What a lovely 3-year-old Wahid will make.

* What a lovely 3-year-old Skyward will make.

* How it is not impossible to make good money with the right horse. In the wake of the recent racing for a sack of carrots quote, Wahid's owners the Stanley brothers must think racing here is okay. They had a million-dollar sale with Grout and now Wahid has already won them more than $375,000.

To operate syndications at the level of David Ellis Te Akau Racing Stables you need a headliner practically every season and Mark Walker and the stable have rarely failed to deliver.

Good horses will always win good races, but you get the impression with Te Akau's topliners like Kings Chapel and Kindacross that each horse is being totally maximised. It is one of the true disciplines of racing.

At the beginning of the season Kindacross leaned slightly towards being the one-dimensional speedster juvenile.

As he's matured he is a versatile horse with all the attributes to be great. He has a very high cruising speed, which can be stepped up whenever his rider says with no objections.

Hayden Tinsley was surprised when he watched the video replay of his Sires Produce win.

"I jumped out well on the outside of Lisa Cropp [on Crepe De Chine]. I said to her: 'Go on, away you go,' and she said 'No, you go to the front'.

"Kindacross was happy to drop three-quarters of a length off Lisa and I thought we were just dawdling.

"It wasn't until I saw the replay and talked it over with Lisa that I realised we were two lengths clear of the next horse and really travelling.

"But neither horse was doing any more than travelling nicely within itself."

It is that cruising speed that made it virtually impossible for Wahid to win. He settled back, and Michael Coleman had no option but to go wide from the 600m to improve as he could not afford to allow Kindacross to cruise to the home bend and still be giving him eight lengths' start.

While Wahid was working hard around the field, Kindacross was saving petrol in cruise mode.

"I waited until at least 120m into the home straight before I set him alight and he accelerated away. I knew it would take a huge performance to run him down."

You could see from the 250m that Wahid was not going to pick up Kindacross, and to keep pressing on and get within a short neck says an awful lot about his courage.

With Kindacross' stamina breeding and Wahid's style of racing, both should be magnificent 3-year-olds, but as Tinsley points out some horses can fool you.

"He does feel like a horse that will improve and one that will run 1600m and possibly even further, but every year you say that about a certain number of juveniles and you're not right about all of them. Some youngsters simply don't get better at three."

Tinsley is as impressed as anyone that Kindacross developed mentally and physically while still racing.

To be fair, he has always had a terrific 200m sprint. A couple of times though that has had to be used up early to overcome a wide barrier.

He showed yesterday and at New Plymouth the start before that if you can save that sprint to the end of the race, it's devastating.

For a horse that had had only two raceday starts Howmuchyacharging displayed remarkable potential to finish third. She should be a big winner at three for Auckland Racing Club director Alister Sutherland and his syndicate.

Vegas Showgirl did well for fourth from a wide barrier and fifth-placed Skyward once again showed he is one to follow when the distances increase even further than Saturday's 1400m.