Racing: Star filly lives up to her top billing

Forget that an old stayer finished second, this was as good as it gets.

When you factor in how difficult it is for 3-year-olds to beat the older horses before New Year's Day, We Can Say It Now indelibly wrote her name into the record books with her $200,000 Captain Cook Stakes.

If there was one thing you could perhaps have added it was a set of wing mirrors for jockey Lisa Allpress.

When horses are dashing away by four and five lengths from the opposition they don't need four hard cracks with the whip behind the saddle, followed by another one five strides later.

Not only is it a bad look - We Can Say It Now didn't deserve it.

Two moderating factors are that the new padded whips are very kind on horses, and jockeys who look around in the home straight are similarly not a good look, but there is an innate feel inside the head of outstanding riders.

Still, congratulations to Allpress for winning her first New Zealand group one race, something that she had achieved during her riding in Singapore, but her desire to replicate on home soil has always been frustrated.

The handsome filly who looks so much like her strapping sire, Starcraft, dashed away from the opposition from the home turn after using a fair bit of fuel to get over into fourth just behind the leaders after 200m.

This win was always going to happen provided the gate No 15 didn't hamper the filly's chances.

She is by far the best 3-year-old in the country and what will help her going forward to cement those claims is a magnificent temperament.

Which leads to the question - if she was given a chance could this filly, with so much brilliance, be capable of running 2400m and winning the $2.2 million Derby at Ellerslie on March 5?

Why not?

She relaxes so beautifully in her races and Starcraft ended up world champion sprinter as an older horse, but he won the 2400m AJC Derby.

We are never going to know - We Can Say It Now is about to be given a break and her next start will be in the group one Waikato Draught Sprint at Te Rapa in February.

"Then she'll probably head to Australia," said co-trainer Bjorn Baker yesterday. "There is a race like the Cadbury Guineas [in Melbourne] and there is even a chance of the group one at Otaki, but it will always be one race at a time. The Te Rapa race is the only firm race at this point."

We Can Say It Now, still on her way back from Wellington yesterday, pulled up well from the race said Baker. "She's a big relaxed filly that takes everything in her stride. Nothing ever seems to worry her."

Owner Paul Makin, a Hong Kong-based Australian professional punter, is currently in Europe.

Makin declared he would donate $25,000 to the Pike River Miners' Fund if the filly won.

The racing industry donated more than $40,000 at the weekend.

The owners of Ellerslie maiden winner, including ARC directors Peter Walker and Alistair Sutherland, threw in the $5900 winning stake and winning owners Daniel and Elias Nakhle gave $5000 from the winning stake of the $85,000 Concorde, as they had when Celeris won at Otaki the previous Friday week.

Racegoers at Ellerslie and Trentham also contributed.

Mandela showed his 1200m barrier trials win over sharp sprinter Pinsoir was no fluke when he took second at long odds behind We Can Say It Now.

Obsession ran on gamely for her third after being checked in running, but like the rest of them she was chasing a shadow from the home turn.

Spectacular Icon, better known as a handicapper, ran well for fourth.

One of the better runs was from Vosne Romanee, whose career might have looked in danger when he pulled up unwell after the Hastings treble.

He could not find proper racing room for much of the home straight and finished close up eighth.

South Auckland horseman Ben Foote is not frightened of hard work.

But the 34-year-old says if he had to start his time over he doesn't know if he'd go through the eight-year grind he's just gone through.

Then he thinks about his $85,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Concorde winner Ego on Saturday and says: "Oh well, probably I would."

Which does not minimise how tough the battle has been for the former jumps jockey to establish himself in the training ranks.

Anyone paying attention will know Foote is doing a magnificent job with meagre thoroughbred resources.

He has Ego for Daniel and Elias Nakhle to spearhead his team, but his seemingly regular recent supply of winners from his Byerley Park base have been bargain basement horses he's had to find.

Those, plus rejects from other trainers have been the basis of his success.

His plight highlights a problem in New Zealand racing of how hard it is for a talented young horseman to get a foothold in the training ranks.

Land values within a half-hour drive of a registered training track, particularly in the top half of the North Island, are prohibitive for any young person hoping to set up as a trainer.

Under those circumstances, talent will inevitably be lost to other industries, talent which racing cannot afford to lose.

Ben Foote deserves admiration for hanging in there.

"My stickability has got me to this point," he says with no false modesty.

Stickability like going to dispersal sales and buying his recent winners Yankee Walk for $1000 and Road To Rio for $400.

If you can make those horses into winners it's remarkable that the phone hasn't been ringing with already established decent horses to prepare.

"I've got 30 in work, but half of them are for selling interests and horses getting ready for Asia, which I do for an income. I haven't got that many horses to race."

Which is why his big sprint win on Saturday with Ego was such a big thrill.

"He was sent over to Sydney through the winter to get away from our wet tracks and he probably didn't have a lot of luck overall.

"He was pretty well suited in this race [with 51.5kg from the No 2 gate]."

The bigger summer sprints, like the Railway and the Telegraph now beckon.

Ego showed pace for Paul Taylor and displayed even more grit to defy the opposition late.

Amaryllis did well to get within a neck with a determined finish, after being held up slightly, and Vonusti ran on strongly down the outside in what turned into an on-pace race.

Vincent Mangano did well to finish fourth after having to be checked off heels when he raced keenly early, which he can do.

Beautiful Girl came out of the start awkwardly and settled second last. She made a run at the leaders halfway down the home straight and her effort to be 2.6 lengths from the winner was a good effort.

This was a Byerley Park result.

Daniel and Elias developed the complex, south of Auckland, Ben Foote trains there and Ego's winning rider Paul Taylor recently relocated there from the Central Districts to rejuvenate his career.

COOK STAKES

* We Can Say It Now was simply in a different class.

* The No 15 barrier draw did not even come into play.

* The explosion the Cambridge filly produced to leave the opposition behind late was startling.