We are getting through the winter well so far with the top spring horses jogging up and a small racing team. We are concentrating on next season's two year olds of course and I have a high opinion of them. Even better than last year's crop and I rated them right up there. Such good pacers most of them are. They are running easy 800m in about 20 at this stage but so many of them are so well gaited I am sure they will have the speed to match.
Janet and I are "house sitting" for Mark and Natalie at the moment and its a beautiful place to live. Moving out again will be the hard part !
My highlight for the season -and there were a lot of highlights for the stable-is Have Faith In Me's Auckland Cup win. It was a great performance but added to that and Tim's drive was the work that had gone into getting him right for the standing start. For quite a while he was very tricky in that department but the extra work paid off that time.
I don't know whether he will win Horse of the Year because I think sometimes the horses who do well early in the season probably have a lower profile at the end of the season but whoever of the two win both of them will be deserving winners.
Another special highlight was the number of quinellas and even trifectas Mark and Natalie ran in the big Group One races. It is very hard to do that any time and this season again it happened quite a lot of the time. They really are great trainers anddrivers. I have never worked for better and I've worked for some top men back home.
My biggest disappointment ? Probably Vincent going amiss when he looked so promising as a two year old. But the good newsis he will be back.
I have to say my job has been made a lot easier by the staff we have here. They work together well and they work hard and we have those sort of people from bottom to top. We have particularly good travelling staff too which makes you sleep better at night when horses are a long way from home-they are usually the really valuable ones.
I think this is the best staff I have worked with here and it just makes your job so much easier especially at times like this when you are in charge.
I am just hoping things will carry on the way they are until Mark and Natalie return and things get really serious for the new season. It has certainly been a great one this season.
Duane Marfisi
www.allstarsracingstables.com