By MIKE DILLON
It used to be Sir T, then yesterday it became Sir Patrick.
This afternoon it will become Lady Ana if tiny mare Ana Zeel can win New Zealand's richest race, the $500,000 Blue Star Auckland Cup at Ellerslie for her senior part-owners, Sir Patrick and Lady Hogan.
Sir T, better known as world renowned stallion Sir Tristram, will not know about it, but New Zealand's newest knight and his wife will cheer their lungs out in the Ellerslie grandstand today if Ana Zeel gets anywhere near the leaders in the final 400m.
Ana Zeel was last night the early favourite on TAB fixed-odds betting, but Sir Patrick said he does not expect to win.
"How can you?" he said yesterday. "First you get a fabulous horse like Sir Tristram, then when he goes, his son, Zabeel, becomes a sensation.
"You win the Auckland Cup a year ago with Irish Chance and then get knighted.
"How can you expect to win another Auckland Cup?
"You've won the last Auckland Cup going out of the millennium. To win the next one coming into another millennium - those things just don't happen."
The intriguing point in all this is that Ana Zeel knows none of it.
She has been going about her business quietly, or as quietly as a head-strong Zabeel can go, at Mark Walker's Matamata stable and there is confidence in that stable after the mare's huge second to Magic Winner in last Sunday's $100,000 Queen Elizabeth lead-up to the Auckland Cup.
If you looked for one Queen Elizabeth run that said a horse was ready for 3200m, this was it.
Ana Zeel, squeezed out at the start, covered a lot of extra ground around the field from the 1000m and at no stage flinched on her finishing effort.
Walker describes Ana Zeel as a mare with a mind of her own. Ignorant, but that's not a bad thing when fire, grit and determination are needed at the end of New Zealand's toughest flat race.
She is also very small, but only until you put the saddle on, says Walker.
"When you're on her back she doesn't feel small. She has the action of a big horse."
He is delighted with her preparation. His trackwork rider climbed off after the final gallop Thursday morning with the prediction that only a horse with a better run in the cup would beat her.
"She's come a long way in a short time, but after every race she's said to us: 'I'm copping this, let's keep going.' All I want is for her to have a clear run with no bad luck."
It's one thing to win the Auckland Cup with a Sir Tristram like Irish Chance, which Sir Patrick bought with Sir Michael Fay at a sale simply to have some fun.
It is entirely something else to do it with a horse bred by a son of Sir Tristram from a descendant of one of the taproot mares which Sir Patrick bought when he and Lady Hogan were so broke they could not afford proper furniture.
Sir Patrick admits he will be difficult to interview if Ana Zeel wins.
"I was asked during a television interview last night what I'd say coming out of the grandstand if she won and they had to edit it," he said.
"I swear all I'll be able to say is: "well, .... me."
Racing: Wise money on Ana Zeel
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.