By BARRY STREET
Trainer Bert Swney accepted only a small share of the kudos after Adonis extended his winning sequence to four in the $20,000 main race at Ellerslie on Saturday.
Swney's wife and training partner, Dorothy, got a good deal of the credit because she was the boss of the stable.
"I'm only the overseer," the jovial Takanini man explained.
"It was Dorothy who realised the horse needed to be kept fresh and raced sparingly."
Indeed, Adonis has been treated with the utmost patience because he is now a 5-year-old yet has been to the races only eight times for five wins, a second and a third.
His current sequence began as far back as April 29.
Instead of competing in the Stark South Handicap at Ellerslie on Saturday, Adonis could have contested a class four sprint at Hastings a fortnight earlier but for a foot abscess.
"He has always been a bit of a problem horse who has just needed that little bit of time," Swney said.
"He's got windgalls in his fetlocks and puffy joints.
"That's why his breeder [and co-owner], Don Martin, deserves all the success the horse is now producing.
"When we were asked to train Adonis I reckoned he needed six months in a paddock rather than an immediate training programme. That spell became nine months.
"All through, Don never complained or even questioned our opinion."
Fellow Takanini trainer David Deacon also had a hand in Adonis' development, Swney said, mostly with massage and track riding.
More recently jockey Allan Peard had been putting the horse through his paces.
In return, Peard was promised race rides, only to miss out on Saturday because Don Martin had pre-engaged Lance O'Sullivan.
The outcome was satisfactory to all parties, though, because while O'Sullivan was chalking up his third win on the horse Peard had the satisfaction of knowing he would be paid "as much as Lance got."
O'Sullivan said that Adonis could have led all the way. He felt such a fit horse.
But, after the front-running Flying Chief insisted on his usual role, it made more sense to accept a perfect trail.
Thereafter, there was never any pressure on Adonis, who outfinished the pacemaker by a length and a quarter.
Each of Adonis's wins have been over 1200m, but neither the Swneys nor O'Sullivan have any doubt he could step up successfully to 1400m or even 1600m.
"I didn't see his win two starts back, at a mid-week meeting at Avondale ," O'Sullivan said, "but they tell me he overcame 58kg and went to the line with his ears pricked.
"It was much the same today. He could have gone at least another 200m."
The accuracy of that assessment probably will be put to the test in $30,000 open-class 1400m at Ellerslie next Saturday week.
Racing: Dorothy's patience pays off with classy Adonis
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