Ray Faithful will be entering uncharted Harness Racing territory when he unleashes his exciting free legger, The Big Boss, at Addington next Saturday (21 May).
“Having a free legged pacer, for me its just unique,” said Faithful, who has won 12 races at Addington with seven different horses, including a group one, but they've all warn hopples.
He said tried them on The Big Boss throughout his development but in the end decided he was better without them. That was never better illustrated than at Ascot Park on Diamonds Day when ran his rivals off their feet, shaving more than a second off Highview Tommy's Southland record for a 2700 metre mobile.
The American Ideal gelding stopped the clock at 3:18.2 and immediately after the race Faithful said he'd be set for a $20,000 C1 and C2 four year old and older stand on 21 May.
About three weeks after the Invercargill race, Faithful had the Big Boss at the Winton Workouts and described his run as “pretty good”. Credited with running the 2400 metre trip from behind the mobile in 3:01.9, Faithful said The Big Boss was timed to go his last mile in 1:56, last half in 54.5, quarter in 26.5 and went pretty nice.
The Big Boss is raced by Northern Southland enthusiasts Ken (Scotty) Scott, David (Noddy) Orr and and Orr's new wife Jane, previously Jane Pritchard. Orr said that when he was president of the Northern Southland Club, media personality Johnny Turner – also from Northern Southland – referred to Orr as the big boss. The name appealed to Scott who said “that sounds like a pretty good name for the horse”.
Scott had previously had success with the likes of Pump Action and Hellboy, and with Pumped Up who was trained by Dave Jones of Rakaia for two of his wins. Through his ongoing association with Jones, Scott got to see The Big Boss as a foal when his breeder Ray Ancich was selling.
“He wanted the foal, I bought into it, and he said if I pay the transport I can have the mare,” Orr said. “Jane got her share as a birthday present (on 28 March 2012).”
Orr found out later that his second cousin, the late Ronnie West of Balfour, had bred Petronella, fourth dam of The Big Boss.
Faithful said his ongoing involvement began when The Big Boss was weaned. He recalled him in a paddock at Orrs with three or four others and seeing him pace free legged and keeping up with his mates who were galloping.
Orr recalls Faithful staying with him one stormy night when The Big Boss was three and noticing next morning he was on the wrong side of the fence.
“There had been strikes of lightning, he had a big gash in his knee, we got the the vets but it couldn't be stitched,” said Orr, who along with Jane had to attend to the wound daily for the next two to three months until it closed up.
“He got sour on us and didn't like us in the end. We were using manuka honey but he kept licking it off so we had to use another rub. You can still see a bit if a scar.”
Faithful finally gave up on hopples when The Big Boss wouldn't stretch out.
“He had a long hopple buy just wasn't comfortable, 67 inches was too tight,” Faithful revealed.
The Big Boss finally made it to the workouts just before Christmas last year and had his first trial on 8 January at Winton. Sent out free legged, he galloped just before the mobile pulled away.
“It cost him about 90 metres but he won so I knew he was good,” said Faithful, who resisted pressure to put hopples on for his next trial. Instead, he took the reins himself. The result was an all the way win.
Like his Addington mission, The first start of The Big Boss was from a stand. He went away safely, Faithful hopes the same will apply next week but knows its not a given.
His previous Addington wins have been Preiswert – 1993 & 1996, Imperiora – 1996: twice & 1997, Tartan Lady -1999 (group one New Zealand Standardbred Breeders Stakes), Feverish 1999, English Elegance – 2000: three times, Asdean – 2004, and Lord Forbes – 2008.
Mac Henry