Lindsay says he remembers leaping the outside fence at Awapuni Racecourse as a teenager to avoid paying the entry fee. He has now won their richest race.
It didn't quite take the same 21 years, but winning rider Leith Innes felt vindicated after weighing in on Saturday.
"I won this race by a margin on Vinaka 14 years ago and lost it in the inquiry room, which was a joke."
It was and the same blight on the industry appears to be rapidly expanding lately. We saw another case at Ellerslie on Saturday in the Baker Racing @ Auckland Cup, when Sir Andrew was ridiculously relegated to second (See hoofnote).
Marky Mark's only blight in three starts going into Saturday's race was when he became hopelessly unbalanced when sprinting on the home bend in Ellerslie's Diamond Stakes and wound up fourth.
On Saturday morning, there were concerns with connections of a number of runners at Awapuni that the track surface was unsuitably hard and here you have to feel for the track management team. Rain had been forecast, which meant had mid-week irrigation been applied and the forecasters proved to be unusually on the money, an "off" track would have eventuated.
The rain didn't come and fears were that a sudden outburst once racing commenced would result in a slippery surface and a possible disastrous abandonment. Rain did fall after a couple of races, but it was too brief to do damage.
"Leith said the track felt like concrete going to the start for Marky Mark, but that once he got up and racing he was fine," said Murdoch.
She can even find similarities between Solvit and Marky Mark.
"They both possessed decent acceleration. Good speed and the ability to pick up off that speed." Marky Mark, by Makfi, is beautifully put together. He is a fraction on the small side, but Murdoch says that is not going to be an issue.
"He is going to end up being an incredibly powerful individual," she says. By early afternoon yesterday, Marky Mark was on his way to the Lindsay farm for a spell.
Rocanto managed to lob into a great spot in third behind the speed after coming from what looked an impossible barrier. He fought well, but was no match for the winner.
Hoofnote: Saturday's relegation looked very wrong.
Once the connections of runner-up Vibrant Miss protested they were required to prove that, beyond reasonable doubt, their horse would have beaten the winner. That is the only consideration in such protests. No level of interference matters in protests if it cannot be proven to affect the result.
At the 200m, Sir Andrew moved outwards into the line of Vibrant Miss, who followed the winner out. Critical here is that Vibrant Miss was making no ground on the winner at the time - like Sir Andrew she was resuming from a break and had got tired in the testing footing and had come to the end of her run. Her head was down.
There is not one stride of that final 300m that shows she would have run Sir Andrew down. Had the pair both run in lanes Sir Andrew would have won by two lengths.
The only horse he hampered in running out was himself.
