Racing: Cool ride key to success

If Lisa Cropp wins the Te Awamutu Cup on Shanamann tomorrow, she will have barely pulled up before the congratulations start flowing.

That's because the 7-year-old's trainer, co-owner and breeder is clerk of the course Jenny Scott.

Scott prefers the business-as-usual approach to her official duties at Te Awamutu, even with her hobby horse tuned to run the race of his life.

After 27 years of juggling the two passions, the redcoat icon of Waikato racedays says it is always easier on the stress levels to stay working rather than watch her horses race from the sideline.

The Cambridge trainer had her heart in her mouth in the grandstand last time out before Shanamann and Cropp scored an impressive progressive grade win at Avondale on July 2.

After a handful of misses aboard Scott's late-blooming star, New Zealand's leading rider had been at the point of despair over how to get the best from the rising 8-year-old.

"She was having her fourth ride on him and told me she didn't think she could be cool enough to ride him like he needed to be ridden," says Scott.

"But I always knew she could. She's ridden for me for years, since she was a 4.5kg claimer."

Scott rates Cropp's performance at Avondale one of her season's best, and the key to unlocking further riches.

After a hat-trick of exciting wins for apprentice Mark Whiteman, everyone figured that Shanamann's best racing style was to put on a late sprint down the outside.

But Cropp blew that theory apart with a performance Scott will never get tired of reviewing on her VCR.

"Mark would put the turbo-boosters on and come quick, but Lisa just glided into it at Avondale. That's the way he has to be ridden and I know she got a kick out of it.

"She finally got her head around it and got it right. She was over the moon."

Scott knows Cropp can't afford to be so icy cool round the tight Te Awamutu surface.

But Scott is also confident that the dummy straight near the 600m peg won't fool Cropp, or the horse.

Shanamann won over the same trip at this meeting last year, a crucial factor over a circuit where the horses-for-courses theory matters most.

Scott also knows that Shanamann has come back this time a much stronger horse, and the step up in class will not be a problem.

He has worked a treat since his July 2 win at Avondale and Scott cannot fault his condition.

"I've had a good look at the field and I'm not frightened of anything in there," she says.

"This race looks to be well within his range. He's beaten most of these horses before."

A win tomorrow by Shanamann would seal a trip to Riccarton for the Winter Cup (1600m) on August 6.

"He's bred to get a middle distance and he'll get there eventually, I'm sure. But while he's running such good miles, I don't see why he should step out of that zone," says Scott.

Karen Zimmerman's Central Districts raider Harbour Magic is the obvious danger, although he is yet to win right-handed.

The way he won a progressive-grade 1600m at Trentham, and backed it up with an open mile victory at Otaki a fortnight later, this class of field is well within his grasp.

The Charlie Faulkner trained Grani, another last-start winner on debut in open class, looks to be the other main trifecta hope.

Also en-route to Riccarton for the Winter Cup, Grani can race near the pace and you know he will plough through the ground.