Racing: Vela finally gets Oaks winner

By MIKE DILLON

Who said there is no racing God.

When Vapour Trail went over the line to take Saturday's $225,000 New Zealand Oaks at Trentham, you would not have convinced Peter Vela.

As he watched Scott Seamer and Vapour Trail salute Trentham's crowd on Saturday the New Zealand Bloodstock boss and leading breeder shot his thoughts back two years and eight hours.

At that point Vela experienced one of the great disappointments of his involvement in horse racing when he had to scratch the favourite Sarwatch from the Oaks because of a stone bruise.

As a breeder, the Oaks is the fillies' benchmark of greatness.

With the right sort of horse, we're talking a breeding residual heading into the millions.

Vela and his brother Philip had not won an Oaks and the year before Sarwatch had finished second to champion filly Tycoon Lil with Pavan.

Go ahead only a few months after Sarwatch was disappointingly withdrawn and Peter Vela fields a call from trainer Donna Logan.

"Peter, I'm desperate.

"We're running a punting competition here to help the Whangarei Racing Club, attempting to put up a yearling as a prize and we can't come up with one.

"You haven't got one for us, have you?"

"I was so impressed with Donna's enthusiasm to help the Whangarei Racing Club I wanted to help," said Vela yesterday.

How Vela came to win the Oaks with the horse he eventually leased to the club for two years is one of the classic tales of how in horse racing you just never know what you've got.

"I went over to Sheila Laxon's, who was breaking in all our yearlings and said: "We're looking for something that is most likely to win a race as a 2-year-old."

"I figured whoever won the competition didn't want to wait around forever.

"Sheila said we've got this little Jetball filly who looks certain to win at two."

That, of course, was Vapour Trail.

It underlines yet again the intriguing nature of how selecting yearlings is about as far from a science as you get. The big, strapping colt you hope will one day win you the Melbourne Cup, could be a sprinter. Travellin' Man in today's $100,000 Telegraph at Trentham is a prime example.

Ironically, Vapour Trail is bred on exactly the same lines as Sarwatch, by Jetball from a Sir Tristram mare out of a Northfields mare.

The Velas get Vapour Trail back at the end of this season on July 31 and will have in their broodmare paddocks the Oaks winner they've been looking for for two decades. "When they went across the line I couldn't help thinking, if you give a bit, you get a bit back," said Vela.

"Looking back at Sarwatch, we all say among ourselves, oh well, that's racing, but you do feel immense disappointment."

There may be some who suspect Peter Vela played a part in Scott Seamer's riding Vapour Trail on Saturday rather than Macau-based Robbie Burke, who had handled the filly in two starts at Ellerslie.

Not so, says Donna Logan.

"It's well documented that Bruce Sherwin (who won the two-year lease) wanted Robbie back on," said Logan.

"I spoke to Peter when Scott put his name forward for the ride and he said he relinquished any influence on Vapour Trail the day he signed her lease over.

"He said the issue was entirely over to others and eventually the Whangarei Racing Club made the decision as a manager of the filly.

"I was so impressed with Peter's professionalism on the matter."