KEY POINTS:
"He'll just drop dead and fall out of the saddle one day, won't he?"
The speaker was Cambridge trainer Ross McCarroll and the object of his comments was Noel Harris.
McCarroll was among those marvelling at Harris' endurance after the 53-year-old Matamata jockey brought the McCarroll-trained Figure Of Speech home a narrow winner of Saturday's $65,000 Hibiscus Painters Taumarunui Gold Cup.
"That was just a superb ride - he's a genius."
McCarroll was impressed with Harris' expertise in getting Figure Of Speech over from a wide barrier from the 2100m starting point to be one horse width away from the inside not long after the field settled down.
"How'd he do that?" said McCarroll.
Equally impressive was the guile Harris showed in the close finish with second favourite Cape Kinaveral and Lisa Cropp.
With 100m left it was going to be very close with Cape Kinaveral looking the most likely.
But as is always his practice in approaching a tight finish, Harris had left half a head in the tank for the last three or four strides.
It nearly turned out a disaster halfway down the home straight - Figure Of Speech and eventual third-placed Western Line got into a bit of a bumping duel.
"It was the last thing I wanted because pushing and shoving with his big weight would go close to bringing him undone," said Harris.
Asked what he said to Western Line's rider, Rogan Norvall, in the home straight, Harris said: "You wouldn't be able to print it."
Norvall was issued with a warning.
Harris struggled a little for his breath getting off Figure Of Speech. Asked if he had 'flu he said: "No, I didn't really need to waste to ride today, but I still sat in a hot bath for two hours this morning and I overdid it.
"I didn't realise how much weight I'd lost until I got to the races. It flattened me a bit."
For McCarroll the win meant a bit of a headache of where to aim Figure Of Speech, but also the exciting prospect of racing more horses from his stable with wife Delwyn.
Until now McCarroll has sold every horse possible out of his stable to cement his financial future.
He couldn't quit Figure Of Speech, racing him with his parents Bob and Eileen, and half of the $155,875 the horse has won has been useful in securing him the rights to race even more.
"I'm looking forward to us being able to see a few more of them going around in our ownership."
McCarroll had been concerned about the 57kg joint topweight on Saturday and hoped there were a greater number of quality stayers entered for the rich spring handicaps to help push his horse down in the weights.
The disappointment was Jovial Jock who dropped away after sitting outside and a bit back off the leader then sharing the pace from the 800m to the home corner.
"He didn't really want to know when he couldn't get to the front," said David Walsh.
"Then I couldn't hang onto him when he heard the others coming."* The Taumarunui Racing Club has a proud history of producing major racedays from just one meeting a season and it has had some good news - its annual affair has been promoted from super feature to a premier raceday and next year's Cup will be boosted to $80,000 with a minimum stake on the day of $25,000.
