Someone once said you can’t make old friends and you can’t argue with that!
Which is why Sunshine Coast trainer Paul Duncan was delighted by winning with WARSET at Caloundra on Sunday for his New Zealand owner Warner Bowyer, a Te Puke kiwifruit grower.
“We’ve been mates for 30 years,” said Duncan after Warset came from last at his previous start to win comfortably under Brad Pengally.
“We were introduced by a fellow friend Ross McLeod and Warner was always interested in racing.”
Bowyer’s first horse with Paul Duncan was classy sprinter Pinson, winner of the Gr2 Concorde at Avondale. Later he raced Chickilicious, dam of Warset who, by wet weather sire Stark South, raced for poor winter money yet still managed to bank nearly $80,000 from a handful of wins.
Warset, by Melbourne Cup winner Shocking, began his career with Donna Logan at Ruakaka, who had a decent opinion of the gelding. When Donna moved to Singapore Warset arrived at Kris Lee’s NSW stable and after one win was floated up to Duncan’s Queensland stable early last year, where he won over 1800m at his second run.
Spelled, his latest form had been ordinary but a jumpout win promised more.
The Caloundra surface almost always has at least yield in it and that suits Warset. “I will have a look for a nice 1600m -1800m race for him in a few weeks.”
The Duncan stable hasn’t had too many to the races lately, but the strike rate is impressive.
The previous week INITIALIZE didn’t let a track rated a heavy stop her winning over 1100m at the Gold Coast.
The slick mare jumped from an inside gate, kept running and proved too strong under 57kg – a decent weight for a mare. The overall time of 1.7.68 was decent and she finished off with a 36.49 600m.
Initialize was sent to stud last spring and returned to work when found to be empty.
There is time for everything.
Tune in tomorrow when Paul fully lists the magnificent quartet of yearlings he picked up at the Magic Millions sale. Class and value – something all buyers look for.
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