By MIKE DILLON
Nothing sits you on your backside quicker than horse racing.
And nothing picks you up quicker.
Takanini trainer Bruce Wallace quoted the line yesterday morning and was happy to repeat it as many times as you liked after winning New Zealand's richest race, the $500,000 Blue Star Auckland Cup at Ellerslie yesterday.
No one could possibly know the truth of it more after a roller-coaster eight weeks.
Able Master lost yesterday's winning rider, Grant Cooksley, 900m out in November's Melbourne Cup, something Wallace now sees as a blessing.
In a remarkable turn of events Wallace put Able Master in the Auckland Cup field simply because he felt the horse would get too fat spelling for too long if left in the paddock before being prepared for the Sydney Cup, later this year at Easter.
Then, last Thursday, Wallace had to sweat through an inquiry when Cooksley appealed for a stay of proceedings on the two days he was suspended for after his ride on Carter in the Sleepyhead Derby on Boxing Day.
Wallace threatened to scratch Able Master if Cooksley was not allowed to ride.
Then his unorthodox, remarkably sparse one-race Cup preparation with Able Master was assisted by the postponement of the race from Saturday until yesterday.
"It was a beaut. I was able to take him home on Saturday afternoon and gallop him."
In a desperate finish with Second Coming, that last element may have been the master stroke.
Then, just to complete a volatile scenario, Able Master had to survive a protest from Linda Ballantyne, rider of third-placed In My Time.
As a two-win horse Able Master is almost certainly the least-qualified horse to win the Auckland Cup, but his luckless second in the group one Metropolitan Handicap in Sydney showed he had the ability if the break eventually went his way.
Able Master's two Hong Kong-based owners, who form Able International Ltd, were in Vancouver and unable to make the trip.
Racing: Wallace's Able master stroke
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