By BARRY STREET
The smile on Donna Logan's face told the whole story of the fourth race at Avondale on Saturday.
It was a smile, not of smugness, but of relief and satisfaction after the Ruakaka trainer had stepped into unknown territory with her much-improved galloper Victory Smile.
Despite racing twice over middle distances in only four days, Victory Smile completed back-to-back wins in the Avondale Function Centre 2000 by three-quarters of a length.
And testimony to the horse's conditioning and fitness was that in neither race did he have to be ridden out.
Logan said it was all very well picking up an extra $5000 stake on Saturday with a class one horse unable to be rehandicapped because it was running out a nomination.
The main difficulty of the exercise was all the travelling involved.
First there was a float trip from Ruakaka for the 2170m race Victory Smile won from a stablemate, River Girl, at Tauranga last Wednesday.
Then followed a return trip and on Saturday a Ruakaka-Avondale ride - all up about 800km in fairly steamy temperatures.
Naturally, Victory Smile sweated and lost weight while travelling all that way, Logan said.
"But when I weighed him at home before today's race he was at exactly the same weight as he was before he went to Tauranga.
"That's when I felt pretty sure I wasn't asking him the impossible."
Victory Smile will now enjoy some freshening, Logan said, before he attempts a hat-trick of wins in a $20,000 2000m for three and 4-year-olds at Te Rapa on February 10.
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Overseas air travel may cause blood clots in humans but the much-travelled Sunline does not mind it in the slightest.
So says part-owner and co-trainer Trevor McKee, who reported on Saturday that the champion mare had arrived home from her Hong Kong Mile triumph, via Melbourne, looking as strong as ever.
"She got home just before we had to come here this morning for the [Avondale] races, and she was in great nick," McKee said.
"She put on 10 or 11kg in the first week of her fortnight's quarantine in Melbourne but took most of that off again with some pacework at Sandown last week."
Stable life best suited Sunline, McKee said, and under no circumstances will she now be turned out in a paddock.
"The last time we spelled her she was in a paddock only for a fortnight but got all cranky and went through three fences, cutting her legs."
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The Waikato Racing Club's $1 million carnival next month promises to be a real cracker - and not just because of its popular Appeal of Zabeel promotion.
Star 2-year-old Flying Babe will be there for the $500,000 Mercedes Super Bonus Classique.
Flying Babe gave San Luis, a handsome colt by her sire, Flying Spur, a 5kg weight advantage and a beating by three-quarters of a length in the Mercedes Super Bonus Juvenile at Avondale on Saturday.
It was her third win from only five starts and took her earnings to $51,900.
"Even though she is not very big, she is not just a burner," rider Lance O'Sullivan enthused on Saturday. "She is one very tough filly."
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One of last season's smartest 2-year-old fillies has had her career cut short by injury.
Superjet, who began racing with listed wins at Hastings and Pukekohe and a third in the Matamata Breeders' Stakes, tore a ligament in a stifle at Trentham last spring.
Try as they felt obliged to do, Takanini trainers Frank and Craig Ritchie were unable to overcome that problem or fully restore the filly's confidence to stretch out properly.
After a fourth and a third at the Auckland Cup carnival, a distant fourth was the best Superjet could do as favourite in the NZ Bloodstock 1200 at Avondale on Saturday.
Her owners did not hestitate to halt her racing and turn to breeding.
She is by Jetball from a Sir Tristram mare, Precious Platinum, and is already in foal to Sir Tristram's son Kaapstad.
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Brendan Hawtin, a foreman for the Keith Hawtin-Graeme Rogerson stable at Tuhikaramea, was not the least surprised by Vegas's upset win in the Sheriff Handicap on Saturday - the 7-year-old's first for three years.
"He's been a horse with a lot of problems, but how many other group one winners were there in the race," Hawtin said, referring to Vegas's win in the 1998 Telegraph Handicap at Trentham.
"Mainly with swimming, he's got fitter and fitter with each of his races this season, and now that he's back to it he could go down to Trentham for the Thorndon Mile [on January 27]."
A splint bone had to be removed from Vegas's near foreleg before his career got back on track.
Racing: Smile on the face of the trainer tells winning tale
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