Leading into todays harness racing meeting at Addington, Ryal Bush trainer Nathan Williamson had some sleepless nights worrying about Statham and how he would perform on his first trip to Addington Raceway.
Surprisingly beaten first up for the season at Rangiora last Thursday, Nathan immediately had a blood taken and the news was all bad.
Not only was he tying up but he had an issue with stress.
The Vet's prognosis was Statham could start today but only if he had a very quiet week with no hoppled work.
Nathan was worried about what the vet told him.
“He said he was stressed and I put that down to it being his first time away from home on his own.”
“The tying up I can deal with easily but having to back off his training regime put me under stress as well,” Nathan said.
Being a big gross type of horse, Statham needs plenty of work to keep him up to the mark and Nathan was unsure how he would go today off the back of such a soft week.
Nathan didn't need to worry as Statham gave a sublime performance to reinforce his reputation as one of the most promising pacers in Southland.
Three wide for the first 600 metres, Statham took the lead with 2000 metres to go and proceeded to run them off their feet.
Come the finish Statham still had 1 ½ lengths to spare.
What gave the performance more merit was Statham cut out the 2600 metres in 3:12.5, a mile rate of 1:59.1 with closing sectionals of 57.7 and 28.1.
Nathan was a relieved man speaking to Harnesslink after the race.
“ I thought he would be terribly short but his class got him through.”
“He blew the house down after the race so it was a super effort to win like he did.”
“ He would have only been 80% today so it was a great effort,” Nathan said.
Statham is only lightly raced todate but he has shown enough already to suggest he has a very big future.
Harnesslink Media