By MIKE DILLON
Trainer Evan Rayner was the least surprised of any of New Zealand's race fans when Lance O'Sullivan started a trend at Te Rapa on Saturday by heading bush on $40,000 Taumarunui Cup winner Van Winkle.
Unlike his daughter JJ Rayner, who was looking after Van Winkle, Evan had not been told by O'Sullivan what his unorthodox tactics would be.
He watched the win on television at Otaki races.
As soon as O'Sullivan headed out to the trees lining the outside running rail in the back straight at Te Rapa, Evan Rayner's mind switched back 25 years.
"I trained a horse for the Watson brothers of Christchurch, who were basically professional punters, and we'd set it for a race at Te Rapa in winter," he said yesterday.
"When they decided to have a bet the brothers always walked a track the day before carrying gold clubs with sawn off shafts, which they prodded every section of the track to find the firmest going.
"They always had a meeting between themselves back at their motel and when Ron Taylor climbed on the horse the next day they told him that when he got into the back straight he was to immediately head to the outside and run under the trees.
"The instructions were to then head back to the inside rail for the bend between the two straights then to head as wide as possible on the home bend. Remember, this was long before jockeys were going wide like they do today.
"The horse bolted in. At the end of the back straight when he emerged from under the trees the horse was 10 lengths clear and they never got near him."
The Taumarunui Cup was race seven on Saturday and no rider in the previous races had gone wide in the back straight.
You could see confusion among rival jockeys when O'Sullivan headed out on the $2.90 favourite.
After Van Winkle proved the tactics successful, practically every jockey in the remaining three races went out under the trees in the back straight.
"You could see doing your preliminaries the footing out there was way better," said O'Sullivan.
He had decided before he mounted Van Winkle to take a punt and told JJ Rayner what he was about to do.
"It was going to be either a case of pulling the right rein or looking silly."
It had become a mathematical exercise for O'Sullivan, the inside running rail being being well out from its true position assisting the move.
"You had to weigh up how much ground you were going to lose getting out there and getting back against how much better the footing was.
"Had the rail been right in it would have been a closer call."
Apart from mental greenness, which saw him stargaze for a fair stretch of the last 600m, Van Winkle was always travelling like a winner in the closing stages.
"The fact that he was looking about actually helped him relax," said O'Sullivan.
"He'd overraced something fierce over 1600m at Trentham and if he'd done the same at 2100m this time he'd have been in trouble.
"I didn't mind that he was having a good look at things because it kept him mind nice and relaxed."
Rayner now has no reason to change his mind about the $350,000 Kelt Capital Stakes and hoping for a rain-affected track at Hastings.
Van Winkle needs some easing of the ground, and O'Sullivan says he could only guess what the horse would do if the footing was only easy at Hastings.
"You don't know until they try. I wouldn't be prepared to say he couldn't do well."
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