A trip to the 2013 Soho Standardbreds Clearance sale in Victoria is paying dividends for Ringarooma owner-breeders Nathan and Sandra Bennett who were celebrating another Sires’ Stakes victory on Sunday when Colby Sanz took out the Group 2 Tasracing Dandy Patch Final at TAB Park Elwick.
Driver John Walters was keen to hold the lead on the second elect in the market, with the race favourite Kohanah forced to race outside the leader in the 2090-metre event.
After a 64.9s first half of the final mile, the two runners cleared out from their rivals at the 600-metre mark, but over the concluding stages Colby Sanz was able to pull clear over Kohanah to score by 6.8 metres with Rockandahardplace a further 5.8 metres away third.
The mile rate for the 2090-metre distance was 2m 4.7s on the rain-affected track.
Winning trainer Kent Rattray, like many, was concerned with Kohanah missing the prelude of the race nine-days prior.
“There was always some doubt over Kohanah as if he was a 100% he would have been here in the prelude last week, he did do a good job to run second,” Rattray said post-race on Tasracing’s live stream coverage.
Rattray who had three horses in the final said: “they have done a super job this year” and will now give the horses a break.
“All of my three will go to the paddock now, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher this new handicapping system so we will have to be a bit careful what we do with them going forward,” the Lietinna-based trainer said.
But Rattray is wasting no time on his plot to win next year's event and is about to commence the preparation of his next generation of youngsters.
“Next week it will be full scale into the yearlings and getting them ready for next season,” the winning trainer said.
That crop includes a full brother to Colby Sanz, who is already named Stormy Sanz another owned and bred by the Bennett family.
Bennett’s decision to enhance their breeding stock and purchase two mares at the Soho Standardbreds Clearance sale including Soho Summer for $3,000 is proving to be a good business decision.
Soho Sumer has produced two Tasmanian Sires’ Stakes winners this season with Sunny Sanz (Globe Derby Stakes) and his half brother Colby Sanz in last night's colts and geldings feature, they are the only two horses of racing age out of the mare.
“They have been with me for 10 to 15 years and have been friends of mine since we were kids, their parents raced horses with my parents so it's a family tradition and we are lucky Nathan went to the mainland and purchased those quality mares and they are now producing quality horses,” Rattray explained.
This year's Tasmanian Sires’ Stakes series saw all six races elevated to $50,000 in prize-money which meant the six finals were run at Group 2 level for the first time. BOTRA Tasmania will recognise all winning breeders at the BOTRA race night in Launceston this Sunday evening.
Duncan Dornauf
for Tasracing