Racing: Oh Boy, long wait well worth it

Cambridge trainer Craig Amrein never wanted to take the numbers-game approach to finding that next stable star.

A Port of Tauranga security officer away from the track, Amrein instead patiently juggled the commute with his search for a jumper worthy of replacing top chaser Silver Archer.

Silver Archer's dashing wins included the Koral and Interisland chases, earning Amrein and the brilliant grey a trip of a lifetime to the US$1.266 million Nakayama Grand Jump in Japan in 2003.

At Ellerslie on Saturday Waitete Boy showed the racing world just why Amrein's three-year wait for another taste of big-race glory was worth it.

Despite home-straight pressure in the Ecolab Stealth Hurdles from Norville Prince that would break most hearts, Waitete Boy refused to submit for comeback rider Isaac Lupton.

The six-year-old's courage immediately convinced Amrein and training partner Yvette Keoghan to press on for the $100,000 Great Northern Hurdles at Ellerslie on September 9.

"That was his Northern trial really," said Amrein, who also shares ownership with Keoghan, his Tauranga parents John and Linda and brother Kelvin.

"If he didn't front up against the bigger guys in this we were going to back off and set him for some easier options and then have a go next year."

Amrein had a gut feeling he was on to something special from the moment he and Keoghan first bought the Charnwood Forest gelding from Ben Foote's stable last summer.

"He's 100 per cent sound; the owner before us was very patient with him. He's just taken a long time to mature," said Amrein. "

"But he's taken to jumping like a duck to water."

The only chink so far appears to be Waitete Boy's aversion to jumping left-handed.

He killed a maiden and jumper's flat field at Rotorua over 2300m in May - his first start for Amrein and Keoghan - but finished a distant fourth in the Wellington Hurdles two starts back.

"He lugged so badly in that race that Shelley [Houston] couldn't touch him with the stick," said Amrein.

"She came back in and said to just forget about that run altogether."

Amrein and Keoghan will give Waitete Boy his final Northern tune-up back at Ellerslie in an open hurdle on August 26, which should be close to Northern quality.

Amrein is confident he'll easily cope with the step up in distance and again over the Northern's 4190m.

"He's out of a Sir Tristram mare and his half-brother won a Perth Cup so I don't see the distance being a worry.

"He just pins his ears back and keeps going - he doesn't know how to give up."

Waitete Boy's win on Saturday sets up an intriguing next-up clash with another Ellerslie winner, Tantalic.

The Ecolab Ecosafe 2100m victory was the grey's first on the flat since the 2004 Manawatu Cup.

But it's the hurdles most fans want to see him try again after an impressive maiden jumps win on debut, a 20-length romp at Avondale on July 12.

That effort has clearly switched the open handicapper back to somewhere near his best.

In his previous flat race to Saturday's win, also against R92 rivals at Ellerslie, Tantalic could beat only one home.

Waitete Boy, a one-race winner on the flat, was more than three lengths ahead in second place that day.

Rider Craig Grylls said Tantalic was only going to run third at best shortly after turning for home on Saturday.

"He's stormed home - he's just flown that last bit," he said.