KEY POINTS:
Peter McKay told a lot more than he thought when explaining his training background after Alamosa won Saturday's group one $250,000 Thorndon Mile at Trentham.
McKay has suddenly become one of New Zealand's most astute buyer/seller/marketers of horses. Much in the mould of a Trevor McKee.
His horses
even have a remarkably similar look to those McKee traded with enormous success for more than two decades.
"I spent time working for Maurice Campbell 16 years ago," said the former South Islander.
"Then I did a lot of breakers for Trevor McKee. I learned a lot about the type of horses to buy, working with Trevor's horses."
There you go.
McKay made him, wife Kim and ownership partner Trevor Luke a fortune when he paid $60,000 for Alamosa as a yearling.
They cleverly turned down big money on several occasions and as a group one winner as a 2-year-old and now a group one winner over the older horses, Alamosa is extremely valuable as a potential stallion.
His born-in-heaven attitude to everything he does is going to continue to stand by him.
That's aside from the $601,125 he's already picked up on the racetrack.
McKay said he didn't know what to think of Alamosa's chances going into the race
"I thought if he ran in the first three I'd be happy. The odds were against him, but then he doesn't read stats. I wasn't sure what to think."
Winning on Saturday opened up the options for McKay and Alamosa.
"I was going to run him in the weight-for-age at Otaki, but I'm not sure he needs to run in that now.
"He's already shown he's the No 1 3-year-old - there's nothing he's got to prove."
Even if he doesn't run at Otaki, Alamosa has a lot ahead of him.
"The 1600m is probably the best distance for him this time in, but he'll run 2000m next season," predicted McKay.
Lost in the Alamosa dominance was Dezigna's typically brave attempt to win. He keeps running remarkable races at the absolute top level over all distances and deserves a big race this preparation.
Riccarton trainer Michael Pitman was horrified with Chris Johnson's ride on third-placed Final Reality.
"That was one of the worst ... of a ride all day, and you can quote me on that - you know I say it as it is."
Pitman was disappointed Johnson allowed Final Reality to drop back to last.
"Why would you neck them back to last on the inside when all day every rider has tried to get wide and a bit handier than that." Final Reality looked long odds to reach the money when well off the speed 300m out and did extremely well to dash through and grab third off Sterling Prince in the last stride.
Pitman was at Trentham even though he had a big team racing at Riccarton, most of them ridden by David Walsh.
Midweek, Walsh was offered the Thorndon ride on Alamosa and even though the declaration of riders was still 24 hours off, he stayed with his Pitman obligation.
"That's loyalty for you, I won't forget that," said Pitman.
"I hope I provide David with his 2000th winner and I reckon I can at Dunedin next Saturday."
Walsh crept close to the 2000 when he rode three winners for Pitman on Saturday, Parole, Lagerfeld and Coup Pie.
