By MIKE DILLON
Really think about this.
You are a 40-something battling trainer with fewer than 20 lifetime wins behind you. You have to work full time outside of racing to support a family and your working day starts at 4 am seven days a week.
You have a horse good enough to win New Zealand's premier jumping race - something that would be the highlight of your life - and you wait two years to make sure everything is perfect.
This is not something most of us would have the patience for.
But it is what Grant Shaw has lived and breathed every day for more than two years with dashing steeplechaser Bob Dobalino.
The runaway winner of Saturday's $12,000 Melter's Steeplechase at Te Rapa is one of racing's most dashing 'chasers in years. Explosive but erratic.
He could have won anything, but Shaw has deliberately kept him in kindergarten prison with one longterm goal - the 2000 running of the $100,000 Mercedes Great Northern at Ellerslie.
Shaw has never been swayed from his target by the fact Bob Dobalino has been a mind-of-his-own loose cannon, who just about everyone is prepared to bet against seeing out the gruelling 6400m of the big Ellerslie race.
He had no substantial evidence Bob Dobalino could defy his tearaway racing style and successfully negotiate 6400m - until Saturday morning last weekend.
It was the day the rising 10-year-old grew up mentally.
"I was working him along the beach and he felt lethargic. I thought: "Something's wrong with this horse" then I gave him a kick and he exploded into a sprint.
"It was then I realised he'd finally settled down in his mind."
Despite that, the 6400m of the Northern has cut the legs from under some of the bravest of horses, many of whom had not previously been found wanting in stamina.
Whether Bob Dobalino manages the distance or not, the most intriguing feature is Shaw's patience.
"That's why I'm a jumping trainer, you've got to have patience.
"You've got to set your target and stick to the game plan.
"That's why we won't come back here for the Waikato Steeplechase before the Northern. He'd win that easily, but then he wouldn't win the Northern."
One of the original five-person syndicate couldn't cop the patience and walked.
"The rest have been great," said Shaw.
Eddie Lamb, back from Japan, was greatly impressed with the new look Bob Dobalino.
"As we all know, you've always had to let him do exactly what he's wanted and today I was delighted that he was happy to settle for the first time. He lobbed into fourth early and the only reason he ended up outside the leader Reb's Shu was because he was jumping his way up there.
"If it hadn't been for that he would have been happy to stay back fourth or fifth.
"Even when he caught the fences in the wrong stride he was still going forward. He makes so much ground in the air."
While he's been shy so far with his star, Shaw has not ruled out setting Bob Dobalino for the world's richest jumping race, the $3 million-plus Nakayama Grand Jump in Tokyo in April next year.
Lamb, who has spent much of the past eight months in Japan, feels the horse is perfect for the race, in which Kiwi 'chaser Maybe Rough finished just behind the placegetters three weeks ago.
"I went to the race last month and the English horses were disadvantaged because at home they have to clear their fences where in Japan you have to be able to brush through them.
"Bob Dobalino is perfect for that."
Shaw said his determination to keep his star away from the major races so far has meant Bob Dobalino would not have had the necessary credentials to represent New Zealand in Japan.
"But if he is successful this campaign in the Northern, the Wellington Steeplechase and the Waikato Hunt Cup he may be looked at differently."
Lamb is confident Bob Dobalino will manage the Northern distance.
"Because he was settled today he jumped more economically and that's exactly what he needs to do to help him at Ellerslie."
Shaw says people underestimate Bob Dobalino's stamina because of his brilliance.
"He works six miles on the beach, three miles up and three miles back. He would keep up the pace he showed today for six, seven or eight miles if he had to."
In which case they're going to get a fright at Ellerslie.
Lamb is one of New Zealand's finest jumps jockeys, but, remarkably, his sixth last year on Freebee High was his first ride in New Zealand's finest jumping race.
"I've never really had a Northern horse.
"I have now."
Racing: Patience pays off as 'chaser comes of age
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