He knew it was coming so Jeff Whittaker didn’t mind waiting a little longer for the real Christian Who to show up.
And when the royally bred filly showed immense speed at Ashburton to run down her rivals with a 25.9 quarter on Sunday the Springston horseman could rest easy in the fact his opinion was spot on the mark.
“We’ve always had a bit of time for her,” he said.
“But it’s been a case of allowing her to grow into her big frame, she wears a 63-inch hopple.
“It probably took longer than what I thought it would, but the writing was probably on the wall in her two previous starts where she found the line so well.”
The third foal of former outstanding filly and then racemare, Natal Franco – Christian Who has plenty going for her both on the racetrack and in the breeding barn when the time comes down the track.
Whittaker trained the dam for her last three starts after she did the majority of her racing for Southland’s Vin Devery. A naturally quick mover with a high turn of foot, Natal Franco has definitely left some of those traits in the daughter of Christian Cullen.
Princess Arts, who won seven, is the only other foal from the mare to make it to the races.
Matty Williamson was in the bike, as he was the start before, on Sunday and Whittaker wanted to give credit to the mares’ two previous drivers in his son Josh and also Jimmy Curtin.
“They did a lot of the work with her in getting her confidence up and allowing her to mature.
“Matty has clicked with her well in the last two starts, and she went super for Josh the start before that too.”
With a small team of six in work, Whittaker is happy with where his numbers are at.
Trotter Another Chapter isn’t far away from another win and is actually in a very similar boat to Christian Who.
“She’s a big girl too at 17 hands and is still maturing into herself.
“The talent is there when she gets it all together though for sure.”
Although there’s a nice race team in the wings, Whittaker was most excited about the prospects of his two sons, Josh and Luke who will both be in the junior driver ranks from the start of the new season.
Josh is already an established driver but Luke will begin his career on August 1.
“Luke has just shifted up to work for Tony Herlihy in Auckland after spending a month in Australia with Delightful Memphis for Mark Jones.
“It will be a great experience for him.
“And Josh is being kept really busy with his equine dentistry work, the trainers around the country are really getting behind which is fantastic and something we are really thankful for.”
And the best part about the boys being based in separate islands?
There’ll be no family arguments over who gets the drive when Dad lines one up at the races.
“That’s a bit of a bonus really.”
Matt Markham