Well, that was a pleasant surprise! If anyone had suggested a few months ago that our Tavistock mare would win two $50,000 1200 events on successive Saturdays at Ellerslie, I would have recommended a reality check.
We had never backed her up before but she looked better yesterday than she did seven days previously, so warmest congratulations are due to the Logan – Gibbs team for their skill in managing this considerable achievement.
I’ve written before (9 December) that at the end of her first campaign I had thought that she was just a horse, but it’s nice to be proven wrong. None of our Cloughmore Racing Partnership horses have ever shown sprinting ability until now, but this mare has wheels in abundance. She has a high cruising speed but also possesses the ability to accelerate over the final stages of her races. Last weekend she ran her final 600 in a slick 33.43; yesterday she returned 33.79 over the same distance, although she was wide and had to shift sideways twice.
Although by Tavistock, RTT (no, I still am not a fan of that name) is out of a Volksraad mare and does throw to that successful speed stallion. She’s bred on the same cross as four-time Group 1 winner Volkstok’N’Barrell and has a similar action to that remarkable galloper. Her second dam is by Zabeel, and if there’s one cross that constitutes a licence to print money at the moment it’s Tavistock x Zabeel.
So where to from here? RTT does lack size, if not heart, so if she’s going to win some black type it makes sense to get her into a nice race at the minimum weight. However, racing teaches all of us not to get ahead of ourselves so let’s just enjoy the moment.
I’m off to watch the video again.
