By BARRY STREET
Panic set in twice before the much-improved Te Awamutu galloper Just There produced another runaway win at Avondale on Saturday.
Father-and-son trainers Darrell and Peter Hollinshead held out little hope last Tuesday of their 5-year-old being fully fit for the Dr Minas Elias 2000.
"His work that morning was abominable," Peter Hollinshead said, "so bad that we took him over to [horse therapist] Baz Dowling at Cambridge to see if he had strained anything.
"It turned out he had ricked his neck and a stifle.
"Two days later he was right again, working along every bit as well as before his seven-length win at Ellerslie a fortnight ago."
Even then, an oversight by Peter Hollinshead nearly ruined Just There's chance in the last hour before he raced.
"I packed the wrong bit - one that another of our horses, Toppy, wears," he said.
"Just There needs a straight bit, and I had to go looking for one I could borrow.
"Luckily [fellow Te Awamutu trainer] Bill Weal had one."
From No 1 barrier stall, Just There had to be hunted along early by Mark Sweeney.
Even so, there was no stress evident after he got to the lead at the first bend.
He stayed clear by two or three lengths all the way to the home turn and then kicked again to score by three from Nessun Dorma and Rule The Waves.
A hat-trick attempt will be made in a $15,000 class four 2100m at Ellerslie on July 22.
"Depending on how well he goes that day, he might then have a crack at the Taumarunui Cup," Hollinshead said.
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Question time: What do former champion English jockey Lester Piggott and the sire College Chapel, who stands at Ra Ora Stud, East Tamaki, have in common?
Answer: Piggott used to ride College Chapel, who was the last of the great horseman's 116 winners at Royal Ascot.
But, wait, the plot has thickened.
Just last week Piggott was back in the winning enclosure at Ascot, not as a jockey but as the owner-breeder of the Nolfolk Stakes winner, Superstar Leo.
Furthermore, Superstar Leo, trained by Piggott's son-in-law Willie Haggas, is a daughter of College Chapel.
Piggott thought it was terrific to win the Nolfolk Stakes but then admitted that being a winning owner-breeder was "not as good as riding them."
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Visiting apprentice jockey Rhys McLeod is bound to have a New Zealand following after he gets back to Pat Carey's stable in Melbourne on Wednesday.
The 17-year-old made quite an impression with his enthusiasm and talent during a fortnight's working holiday with Cambridge trainer Brian Jenkins.
Two wins came his way last week and he also won a lot of praise for a barnstorming finish on Master Riba at Avondale on Saturday.
A brother of Brian Jenkins, Takanini trainer Gary Jenkins, gave McLeod some unusual advice on how to win on Master Riba.
"Imagine the horse is an All Black," he said. "Just keep kicking him."
One who anticipated McLeod could be a hit in New Zealand was stipendiary steward George Lawson.
"When the boy came to me at the Tauranga races last Saturday to get a clearance to ride his shoes and pants were soaking wet," Lawson said.
"I asked him 'how come,' and he said he'd been walking the track and decided it was like a mini Flemington.
"Fair go, how many apprentices of his age and experience would have gone to that trouble, especially when the track was so wet?"
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Promise Keeper's well-deserved win in a class two 1600m at Avondale on Saturday said a lot for the horse's constitution.
It was the 4-year-old's fourth race in as many weeks, each in heavy ground, for two wins, a third and a fourth over three distances from 1200 to 1600m.
Trainer Andrew Scott had Promise Keeper thoroughly checked by a veterinarian before giving the go ahead again on Saturday.
Ironically, Promise Keeper was given no chance of further racing a year ago after having some loose bone surgically removed from a hind fetlock.
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Takanini trainers Charlie Faulkner and Kevin Smith are both optimistic about their chances in the Whyte Handicap at Trentham next Saturday.
Faulkner, especially, after he won the $20,000 Winter Mile at Avondale on Saturday with Mr McGerkle.
Clarify did Smith proud with a bold finish for third on a track that did not favour back runners.
Faulkner said he thought that the surprising recovery of the Avondale track after a mid-week deluge could have been detrimental to Mr McGerkle.
"I think he won because he was a fit horse," Faulkner enthused, "though not 100 per cent.
"I have deliberately kept a little bit more improvement in him for Trentham."
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Master trainer Colin Jillings, of Takanini, is away in Sydney on a two-race mission in New South Wales and Queensland with Lately.
After a third in the Whakatane Cup at Tauranga last Saturday week, Lately will attempt two of Australia's richest winter country cups.
They are the Grafton Cup on Thursday and the Caloundra Cup a week later. Both are over 2400m.
Lately deadheated for first with the John Wheeler-trained Midnight Babe in the Caloundra Cup last year.
Racing: Moments of panic wiped out by runaway victory
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