Racing: Hurdles triumph relieves loss of mate

An hour of tears were brushed away by a moment of triumph for Joanne Moss when Cool Water won the Grand National Hurdle at Riccarton Park yesterday.

Moss, who trains at one of the most remote racing areas in New Zealand - the beach at Gisborne - was heartbroken when His Worship broke his back and had to be destroyed in the Novice Steeplechase.

"I had him for seven years. He was my mate. I refused to go and look at him. I just told them I did not want him to suffer," said Moss, 33.

"I cried for an hour. Then Kevin Myers gave me a speech about how I could send a horse out to win the National Hurdle and it brought me right.

"But even after this I am going to be sad when I get home and His Worship isn't there."

Cool Water's win in track record time in the $40,000, 4200m race wasn't the first success in the race for his connections.

He is raced by the Treweek family, Mark and Shelley, and Mark's parents, Neil and Pauline, who bought Cool Water for $9000 as a two-year-old.

Neil Treweek, 61, the track manager at Te Rapa, won a Grand National Hurdle on Never Give In in 1972 and the Homeby, Grand National and Lincoln Steeplechase treble on Linred in 1967.

Rochelle Lockett, 31, the stable rider for Myers who rode Cool Water, has also previously won the Grand National Steeplechase, on Currency.

Yesterday's win was her second in succession in the Hurdle after Lucky Tip won last year for the Kevin Myers stable.

Myers, who trained four winners for the first time at Riccarton yesterday, also played a key role in Moss getting to train Cool Water.

Myers educated the horse and handed over to Moss last year after he went amiss.

"I knew Joanne through show ring riding and Cool Water needed beach work where he can do his training in a straight line," Myers said.

"Joanne is dedicated and deserves her success. She is dictated to by the tides and sometimes she rings at seven o'clock at night and she has just finished working the horses."

Moss, the first woman to train a winner of the Grand National Hurdle in her own right, worked in earlier years for top trainer Laurie Laxon and spent some time in Japan.

She is one of just three trainers in Gisborne and in her first year as a professional trainer.

"It is mostly beach work though I use the Makaraka track ... I can go 12km either way if necessary. I have about 15 horses at a peak time," Moss said.

Cool Water was the unlucky runner in both the Waikato and the Great Northern Hurdle earlier in the winter, leading the latter at Ellerslie before hitting the last fence hard and giving Narousa his chance to win by a nose.

Moss is uncertain about Cool Water's immediate racing plans, but she could aim at something like the Grand Jump at Nakayama next year.

Willywince, more relaxed than the first day, looked the winner at the turn and fought on strongly for second while Classic Spirit put in his chance for third.

The favourite Foreign Seas could not match the speed of his rivals but had his chance, while second favourite Eye Chance, who looked a danger at the 800m, found lack of experience against him over the final stages.

Lockett can now tilt at the Grand National double aboard Gold Story for the Browne stable on Saturday.

"I have certainly got to like Riccarton. I feel right at home here and so does the horse," Lockett said. "He jumped brilliantly and he likes this sort of ground.

"He is a neat horse."

- NZPA