By BARRY STREET
Jim Mouat has only one concern with his freakish winter galloper Danzapride, who downed a class field of wet-weather sprinters at Ellerslie.
The elderly racing hobbyist from Ohaupo in the Waikato doesn't want his 15.2 hands giveaway horse climbing too quickly in the weights.
To racegoers, Danzapride must
seem a giant, such is his prowess in the worst of footing.
But even fully fit last season, he weighed only 420kg.
Danzapride was reared in hill country not far from the old goldmines of Waihi, came into Mouat's care after a trade of three bags of oats and $30 of float damages.
He is by a well-bred but moderately successful sire, Danzalion, like the great Danehill a son of Danzig, from a hardy New Zealand colonial female line.
Brittle hooves were a problem before he could be broken and pre-trained.
He unseated a jumps jockey three times in his introduction to training, after which episode no flat rider wanted to go near him.
Finally, David Johnson put his hand up, and is now reaping the rewards whenever Danzapride strikes his favourite footing.
The 5-year-old's record on heavy tracks reads seven starts for five wins, including four in succession last winter, and two placings.
It was virtually a survival-of-the-fittest contest that Danzapride won all the way when beating Indiarma and With Drawn in the Victoria Racing Club Handicap on Monday.
Against him were 10 horses who were only slightly inferior in mud with overall heavy-track records of 32 wins and 28 placings.
Mouat said he would not have been shocked if Danzapride had run out of steam in the final stages.
The horse was 10kg heavier, thicker, nor had he done nearly as much training mileage as for his winter campaign last year.
Yet, after giving a sign of getting the wobbles halfway down Ellerslie's home straight, he rallied to draw clear by two lengths.
"I was stoked with the run, as happy as a dog with two tails," Mouat enthused.
"What is more he [Danzapride] behaved himself for a change. It was the opposite - he wouldn't cooperate at all - when I galloped him between races at Te Awamutu last Wednesday."
Everything points to Danzapride improving a good deal. There was no sign of exhaustion after his second-up race on Monday, nor yesterday when back in his natural environment.
Danzapride prefers to slum it outdoors in wind and rain rather than stand idly in a horse box. He has a walk-in, walk-out, lean-to if he wants shelter.
A double at the Wellington winter carnival - one at the expense of the highly regarded Cambridge galloper Revolution - was a highlight of his racing last season.
The $20,000 Meyer Plate, over 1400m, and the $30,000 Whyte Handicap, a listed 1600m, could be his aims at next month's Wellington meeting.
His owner promises, though, to be circumspect when choosing races from now on.
"I don't want the handicapper making it too tough for him."
By BARRY STREET
Jim Mouat has only one concern with his freakish winter galloper Danzapride, who downed a class field of wet-weather sprinters at Ellerslie.
The elderly racing hobbyist from Ohaupo in the Waikato doesn't want his 15.2 hands giveaway horse climbing too quickly in the weights.
To racegoers, Danzapride must
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