KEY POINTS:
The win ground out by The Veep in the Feilding Cup on Saturday was typical of the horse, rider Darryl Bradley said.
The Veep and Nanjara edged clear of their rivals at the top of the straight in the $85,000 open class 2100m race at Awapuni and they fought it out right to the line.
It was The Veep who got the upper hand to score by a long neck and Bradley, as a regular rider of the horse, said it was what he had become to expect.
"That's The Veep at his best - he loves a fight," Bradley said yesterday.
"I don't how many times I've been in front at the 300 (metres) and he hardly ever gets run down."
Bradley is treating all good wins of late as early wedding presents.
The Manawatu horseman is to marry former Otago apprentice Rebecca Haley on December 1.
Bradley, 41, lost a former partner, Vanessa Woods, in 1999 to cancer.
The Veep is trained at Hastings by Tim Symes who bred and owns the horse in partnership with a son, Wilf.
The Deputy Governor 5-year-old gelding was posting his eighth win from 32 starts and the winning stake took his earnings to more than $148,000.
Tim Symes said The Veep would now go on to the Group Two $200,000 Counties Cup (2100m) at Pukekohe on November 24.
Symes is a son of Boy Symes who was a former leading breeder and owner who won more than 300 races. One of them, coincidentally, was the Feilding Cup in the 1960s with one of his star performers, Dalvui.
Tim Symes, 62, was in his 20s when Dalvui won the Feilding Cup and was on hand for the win.
"It was at the old track at Feilding. Bill Skelton rode him," Symes.
"This [The Veep] is probably the best horse I've had anything to do with since then."
Symes dabbled as a trainer for many years but took it on more seriously about five years ago when he leased out his farm.
"While my parents were alive I only ever had one or two horses - I did the farm work." he said.
"Now I've 40-odd horses (including breeding stock)."
- NZPA
