Racing: Play it again Sam - glory days

Samantha Collett celebrates Glory Days' win in the Auckland Cup at Ellerslie. Photo / Bryan Lowe

Bill Thurlow is hoping his second assault on Australian racing goes a lot better than his first.

And judging by how easily Glory Days destroyed her rivals in the $500,000 Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup at Ellerslie it almost certainly will.

The Taranaki mare set off some pretty wild celebration scenes with a seemingly effortless win in New Zealand's greatest staying race on Saturday, looping the field widest from near last at the 1000m to bolt in.

While punters were happy the scenes at Ellerslie were for two separate but intertwined reasons.

Thurlow and his owners were lapping up every minute of coming to the big city to capture the Cup while jockey Sam Collett's first group one win had racing industry insiders lining up for a congratulatory hug.

Collett is one of our most popular jockeys for a variety of reasons. She rides a lot, all around the country and is as professional at a sedate mid-weeker in the South Island as she is on racing's richest days.

Which is how she won last season's premiership.

And if you looked up the word bubbly in the dictionary there might be a picture of Collett, smiling.

She did stop smiling briefly on Saturday as she fought back tears of joy and relief at finally getting her group one, the moment even more special as her mother Trudy Thornton, herself a group one winning jockey at Ellerslie this summer, was the first to embrace her. "To get any group one would have been special for me because I have been waiting a while but the Auckland Cup, and to win it like that, that's amazing," said Collett.

Thurlow, who thinks of himself as part farmer, part horse trainer didn't have to ponder long to confirm it was his biggest career win.

"Before today my biggest was the Avondale Cup with this mare three weeks ago," he laughed.

"So this is a big deal for us. You wait a whole career for something like this."

With a mare in form and rock hard fit Thurlow sees no reason to stop trying to add to Glory Days' four Cup wins for the season. So next stop, Sydney and their A$2 million Cup on April 13.

"We might as well go for that, it is a lot of money and she is strong enough now to handle it," says Thurlow. "She is typical of a good mare, she has a bit if attitude about her and she was back in her box and tearing into her food by 1am (yesterday) so she should be good to go."

Sydney and the glamour of The Championships will all be a bit new to Thurlow, who has only ever campaigned one horse in Australia before.

That was Referred who went to Victoria for a four-race campaign in 2008 after she finished second in the NZ Oaks. She developed a hoof problem and never ran a placing.

Glory Days, having started the season as a 71 rater, may not appeal as everybody's idea of a Sydney Cup winner but Kiwi-trained horses in Zacada and Sir Charles Road ran second and third in the race last season, only bowing to a horse bred down Thurlow's way in Who Shot Thebarman.

And if the rain comes to Sydney, as it can in autumn, Glory Days will get her shot at continuing Waverley's short but proud record in great Australian staying races.

"She may not be Kiwi," says Thurlow referencing the legendary Waverley-trained Melbourne Cup winner, "but she is racing so well we have to have a go."