Racing: Trainer counts on tradition

The Anderton family of Otago have always placed great store on racing's traditions, which is partly why senior jockey Jim Collett will attempt to win his third Winter Cup at Riccarton today on Hustler.

Said trainer Hec Anderton: "I think I have had only one other starter in the Winter Cup, which was Noble River, and Jim rode him a classic race to win [1983].

"I don't think I've seen a better ride in the race. He came from near last and hardly went outside a horse in the run home.

"We had been thinking about getting Jim on Hustler for a while.

"We wanted a smart, experienced rider, a good judge of pace and someone who was a bit hungry. Jim is all of those."

Collett, once the South Island's glamour apprentice, has recently returned to race riding.

The Anderton stable had the best strike rate of any professional trainers among the top 50 in New Zealand last season, rating a winner at nearly every fourth starter.

The Andertons are not just history buffs. As astute racing judges they realise that with 58kg, Hustler will need all the help he can get.

No horse has carried as much weight to win the cup since the top class Shifnal Chief won the race carrying 62.5kg in 1976.

That was the year before a baby-faced Jim Collett's first win in the race, on Diamond Pal, a 9-year-old, at odds of more than 90-1.

Said Anderton: "I thought we might get in a wee bit better [at the weights] but he is a group one horse and you have to accept that.

"We can't really fault his work. He had a good blowout with Jack Be Nimble here on Tuesday and, while I don't know how the other horse came through that, Hustler came through it well - and he is not a good trackworker."

Hustler is a former Two Thousand Guineas winner at Riccarton when the track was rain-affected but not as testing as it will be today.

"Some of the others are not that well weighted in my opinion so that might help us," Anderton said.

"It is not the 58kg - it is the 3kg to the next lot which is the worry. But he will be giving it all he's got and he's a good horse.

"He has a good horse's weight and drawn out as well, so it is a big call."

Anderton is based at the Riccarton stable of Peter and Dawn Williams and is tipping their charge, Juicy Fruit Mambo, as the one to beat.

"He is a better horse than people think," Anderton said.

"He cannot give these sort of horses a big start like he sometimes does, but if he jumps with them that 52kg is going to be a big advantage."

The Andertons had Juicy Fruit Mambo for some time while he overcame barrier problems which threatened to wreck his career.

Peter Williams is keen to win his first Winter Cup but is taking it as it comes.

"I can't be happier with the way he is working and he will like the ground. But it all depends on the start. That part is up to him," Williams said.

The cup is one of the toughest in some years to sort out as Otaki trainer Karen Zimmerman well knows. She has Harbour Magic and last year's fourth placegetter, Classic Design, in the race.

"Harbour Magic has been set for it all through and he always seems to do well. He's pretty keen to get going [in a race] but is a good horse and a dream to handle," she said.

"Classic Design I sent down here for some run-up form on better tracks and he will probably stay down here after the meeting. I would have to favour Harbour Magic on what he has done."

- NZPA