Lofty locks up home town cup
Hoop wins on under-rated stayer Bruce Almighty
BY TONY BIRD
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Racing
Paul Taylor hasn't lost his knack of winning important cup races.
The New Plymouth jockey, known as Lofty, has won almost every metropolitan and provincial cup race in the North Island in his 26 years of riding.
On his home track on Saturday, Taylor was at it again when guiding under-rated stayer Bruce Almighty to a upset victory in the Group Three $80,000 Hooker Pacific Taranaki Cup (2000m) at the Taranaki Thoroughbred Racing meeting.
Taylor, 43, has had a relatively low profile of late following a break through injury and Saturday's cup win was his 15th and biggest of the season.
"I haven't probably chased around for rides too much lately since I came back to riding after breaking my thumb last year.
"But I'm picking away OK and the cup win is very pleasing. Being my home town cup makes it special."
Taylor said the only cup races in the North Island yet to come his way were at Hawke's Bay, Rotorua, Manawatu and Auckland.
His biggest cup success so far was aboard Rastes in the 1987 Wellington Cup when still an apprentice.
Bruce Almighty was well rated in front by Taylor, who was winning his home town cup for the second time, having picked it up on Galleons Reach two years ago.
Trained at Tauranga by Stuart Manning and raced by him and his partner Kay Durrant, Bruce Almighty has compiled an impressive record on the Pukekura Raceway circuit, winning four and being placed once from five appearances.
Together with back-to-back wins on the South Island circuit last month and a solid fifth in the 2010 Wellington Cup at his previous start, Bruce Almighty surprisingly started paying $16.60 to win.
"He's under-rated this horse," Manning said. "Take today, none of the tipsters on Trackside mentioned him, even though he had gone such a good race in the Wellington Cup at his last start."
Bruce Almighty is proving one of racing's bargain buys. Manning paid just $2500 for the horse as an untried two-year-old.
"He was going to be put up for sale on a website and a guy rang me up and said `you like Deputy Governor horses don't you Stu?'
"I had just sold a horse by Deputy Governor to Hong Kong and I said `I've got to at the moment, don't I'," Manning said.
When Manning went to check over the horse he admitted being more than a little taken aback.
"It looked like a little mule when I first saw him, but everything else was right about him."
Plans for Bruce Almighty include another campaign in the South Island.
"I'm taking him down to Riverton for the cup down there at Easter," Manning said. "The people are nice and the hospitality is like it is around here, the people are a bit more laidback," he said.
Bruce Almighty held out a strong challenge by runner-up Il Quello Veloce.
Il Quello Veloce loomed as a likely winner early in the run home, but couldn't pick up the pacemaker.
Bruce Almighty had half a length to spare over Il Quello Veloce at the line with Chettak a further two lengths away third ahead of Cassini, who was trapped wide throughout.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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