Co-trainers Lance O'Sullivan (left) and Andrew Scott, hugging jockey Craig Grylls. Photo / Warren Buckland
Retired jockey Lance O'Sullivan wore a composed smile of accomplishment in Hastings as one would expect of a world-class champion who has clinched a record New Zealand 2479 races in the saddle.
Not so his Matamata co-trainer, Andrew Scott, who hugged just about everything that moved seconds after a pocket of Wexford Stables staff members had erupted into vociferous yelps of joy at the top of the Hylton Smith Stand on Saturday as the rest of the fans were reduced to a murmur.
It's the sort of reaction that is synonymous with ticket-discarding punters left pondering why they didn't do their homework on some 9-year-old hack called Willie Cazals before placing their hard-earned moolah at the Livamol Classic's group one $250,000 feature race.
The grey gelding had defied insurmountable odds, with jockey Craig Grylls in the saddle, to silence many, including his owners, to nudge past the Johno Benner-trained Humidor and Mark du Plessis and win the third and final leg of the Bostock New Zealand Spring Racing Carnival's Triple Crown.
It was only appropriate Scott, who has been schooling horses for eight years with O'Sullivan, be asked to explain what all the hoopla was about.
"Obviously we're all pretty excited because a lot of hard work has gone into the horse leading to today to get him to this point, so it's very satisfying," he said at the birdcage.
Rest and recovery after an 18-month layoff with injuries meant they couldn't overwork Willie Cazals, Scott said.
"There was too much fatigue on his legs so it took a lot to get him here," said the 41-year-old, emphasising patience was imperative with horses, something Grylls had exemplified when he allowed Willie Cazals to nestle at the back of the field before threading him through the fanning field from the 800m mark.
"He was the best-performed horse in the race by world standings so we believed in the horse."
Scott said he and O'Sullivan had earmarked the classic 2040m weight-for-age distance because it suited him.
The Ireland-bred Willie Cazals, who raced in Italy before leaving his hoof prints on Hong Kong racing on his way to New Zealand as a supposed spent force, grabbed the honours by a short neck from the up-and-coming Humidor.
Benner's 4-year-old class hopper would have created just as much fuss had he prevailed after his rapid promotion to group one following Makfi Challenge and Windsor Park Plate lower-tier race wins.
O'Sullivan said when Willie Cazals arrived in New Zealand he had two bowed tendons.
"He basically came back to retire," the 53-year-old explained, revealing the owners felt the gelding had done his dash in big-time racing.
But, it seems, everyone had overlooked, if not underestimated, the co-trainers' prowess - putting the horse out in the paddock for 12 months to soothe his niggly tendons.
O'Sullivan felt a cursory glance at Willie Cazals' international credentials would have left no doubt he was clearly the best-performed horse in the Hastings field of 18.
"I guess you have to take into account his tendons and that he's a 9-year-old, so I guess it just goes to show how good the international horses are compared to our ones.
"For a 9-year-old to come back to do what he has done for a prestigious weight-for-age race is great."
He and Scott were confident that had they got Willie Cazals back to 80 per cent, he was going to deliver on Saturday.
O'Sullivan was reluctant to nominate the rejuvenated journeyman for anything straight away.
"I think we just want to take him home and give him a pat before making any decisions."
It also was a magical moment for Grylls, whose father, the retired Gary Grylls, won the classic equivalent on Love Dance in 1996.
O'Sullivan put it down to a "terrific, no-panic ride" from Grylls.
"He didn't panic at all. He just rode for the break that came his way so I'm just thrilled for Craig because he does a lot of work for us in the mornings and he's always there."
The co-trainers felt pre-race that the better the track, the better Willie Cazals' chances of winning, although Benner, of Otaki, would have perhaps wished the persistent drizzle had kicked in a fraction earlier to give Humidor and Du Plessis the advantage.
"We stood on top of the ground and felt it could suit him better but, hey, we got away with it," O'Sullivan said after numerous trainers had expressed reservations about wet conditions leading up to the race.
O'Sullivan and Scott's idea of celebration was simply heading home for a quiet drink.
After winning the Group 2 Sacred Falls Hawke's Bay Guineas two races earlier on the card with impressive Fastnet Rock colt Mongolian Falcon, Ruakaka co-trainers Donna Logan and Chris Gibbs were back in the birdcage to see their 5-year-old brown gelding Hasselhoof (Matthew Cameron) finish third in the feature race, a length behind Humidor.
Tauranga trainer Stuart Manning's El Pescado (Cameron Lammas) came in next, 2.3 lengths behind Hasselhoof, while Maungatautari husband/wife co-trainers Steven Ramsay and Julia Ritchie had to settle for fifth place with the well-tried Rasa Lila (Leith Innes), a further 2.7 lengths adrift at the finish.