Long To Reign Over Us
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday May 23, 2008
For a horse that was almost dead, Reigning To Win is starting to look deadly. Craig Young reports.
REIGNING To Win, having cheated death, is about to fulfil the promise that allowed him to win five straight as a youngster, including the group 1 TJ Smith at the Brisbane winter carnival.The rising five-year-old has returned for a third campaign under Queensland's winter sun and awaiting in Saturday's Doomben 10,000 is cult hero Apache Cat. The Victorian is chasing five straight group 1 victories but Reigning To Win should not be underestimated.That is the claim from Reigning To Win's owner, Trevor Stuckey. The former harness racing bookmaker races the John O'Shea-trained gelding with partner Penny Yan."He'll be very competitive and it wouldn't surprise me to see him win," Stuckey said. "'He has to be a good chance but I think he is a better chance in the Stradbroke Handicap. You know the last horse to win the 10,000-Stradbroke double?"It was Campaign King in 1988."Stuckey and Yan also race Sydney's premier weight-for-age galloper Racing To Win, which was sent to the paddock after collecting another group 1 when trouncing rivals in the All Aged Stakes three weeks ago.Racing To Win and Reigning To Win have had careers halted by the unforeseen. Both struck a hurdle at the Melbourne spring of two seasons ago. Stuckey remembers it well."John said the horse [Reigning To Win] was a certainty for the Ascot Vale Stakes," Stuckey recalled. "He went down after beating Gold Edition in Sydney over six furlongs, we give it weight and a start and beat the filly."Unfortunately Reigning To Win never made the Ascot Vale - where freakish filly Gold Edition streeted rivals."They gave him [Reigning To Win] a needle in his neck down in Melbourne and he had an adverse reaction to it," Stuckey said. "They brought him back to Sydney while he had a temperature and we nearly lost him at one point. For a week or so it was touch and go."Yan and Stuckey's sister Suzanne kept a daily vigil. "They're like Florence Nightingale and the carrot girl," Stuckey said. "They were there every day with their carrots."Racing To Win was skittled in the Cox Plate, resulting in a career-worst performance. Reigning To Win's predicament only made it worse. "We had a drip in him for a week, he was there at the Randwick Equine Centre for probably 20 days," Stuckey said."They had to put a muzzle on his head so that he couldn't eat or drink. He had to have what they give him when they took the muzzle off him. He was a very sick horse."Stuckey reckons "a lot of tender loving care" was required. He paid tribute to the equine centre staff and veterinarian Michael Robertson."He treats them like children," Stuckey said. "He'd get up any time to treat them, look after the horses, even on All-Aged Stakes day he was at Randwick in his overalls to watch the race."He idolises both of the horses. When you've got a vet like that it is a big help."While the Cox Plate battering prevented Racing To Win from competing at last year's Sydney autumn carnival, Reigning To Win made it to Queensland again."He went to Brisbane and won two and lost two," Stuckey said. "John blamed himself for that, taking the horse up and back to Sydney and back again."Racing To Win and Reigning To Win were gearing up for an assault on last year's Sydney and Melbourne spring carnivals before equine influenza struck. That was the eve of the Warwick Stakes meeting in which Racing To Win was an odds-on favourite."In hindsight, you'll hear all the old-time trainers say a long spell when a horse gets injured or sick does them better," Stuckey said."They have probably come back just as good. A lot of horses do that if they have a strong constitution, they can come back."As an owner you've just got handle it, it's not your wife or yourself that is sick, but you've got to have some feeling for the horse."It is part of life, there are good and bad things happen, you have the bad things happen to make the good things even better."As Stuckey said, Reigning To Win "is a four-year-old, rising five, hopefully he'll get to race until he is a seven-, eight-year-old". "Takeover Target is a rising nine-year-old, he's going all right," he said.The good things may well be on the agenda for Reigning To Win, which has won seven from 12 starts. He returned from a spell at the end of the Sydney autumn carnival. In April, Reigning To Win chased home Apache Cat in the TJ Smith Stakes with O'Shea tearing strips off jockey Hugh Bowman for a poorly judged ride."All those races he has won he has come down the outside where he can stretch out, no horse outside him," Stuckey said. "Bowman ducked inside two horses, stopped his momentum altogether."We can beat him [Apache Cat]. I think Vormista is the danger, he [Apache Cat] only just beat her the other day."
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
