Co-trainer Andrew Forsman cannot have had one moment of doubt about entering into a training partnership with Murray Baker.
It's something we hardly ever see these days - huge money turned down from Hong Kong.
It was a decent old punt John Morrell took early in the week when he turned his back on a stack of money for his star sprinter Mark Ryan.
Which provided a lot of satisfaction when Mark Ryan made the opposition look ordinary in the $50,000 Legacy Lodge Sprint at Te Rapa, his sixth win from seven career starts.
But this was a giant gamble by the Waikato farmer because it's going to be near impossible for Mark Ryan to win the money Morrell refused.
For starters, the Hong Kong offer was rare - it was particularly so in this case as the topliner does not have the best looking legs in the business and would be long odds to pass a veterinary inspection.
The legs could significantly shorten the sprinter's career. But the Hong Kong offer was made in spite of this. It is extremely difficult to win huge money in New Zealand with a sprinter. There is realistically only Ellerslie's Railway Stakes and Trentham's Telegraph along with the group one 1400m at Te Rapa in February.
Winning all three of those - extremely difficult - would still be short of the money Morrell didn't want from Hong Kong and then a horse would be weighted out of any handicap in the country. It's just marvellous to see someone game enough to refuse big money because selling our best young horses to Hong Kong is the main reason we have few horses maturing to take to the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. Morrell, a dairy farmer, said he will put Mark Ryan in the paddock for a week. "I'll see how he comes through this race physically and plan from there. There is the Concorde coming up."
Congratulations to Rick Williams in being appointed to the Board of NZ Thoroughbred Racing, replacing the retiring Joe Walls.
Williams, the manager of The Oaks Stud, is the type the board requires.
Australia and New Zealand being unable to win the majors in Melbourne, the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup stops no one going to the races.
Ireland, Japan and Germany may have cleaned up those prizes, but 325,519 mainly Aussies and Kiwis showed up to see four magnificent days of racing at Flemington despite freezing weather on Derby Day.
Thirty-seven races accommodated 536 horses.
Ride of the day at Flemington on Saturday - dead-heat: Hugh Bowman on Terravista in the A$1 million ($1.1 million) Darley Classic and Dom Tourneur guiding Hucklebuck to win the A$1 million Emirates.
