300 for DeFilippis

Broadfield harness racing trainers Colin and Julie DeFilippi won their 300th race as a training partnership when Beaudiene Quick Step (A Rocknroll Dance) got in the deciding stride to win his first race at Addington today. 

The four year old settled third last early. Then inside the last 600 metres DeFilippi got him going and he improved three wide, on the back of Don Juan (Vincent). Fifty metres from the post, DeFilippi pulled Beaudiene Quick Step out to make his run and he got up to win by half a head.  

“I got squeezed up at the start and I got a lot further back than I intended. After that things fell into place and it was survival of the fittest at the end,” Colin told Harness Unhinged, Nigel Armstrong. 

The gelding is out of the Art Major mare Beaudiene Beaut Babe and was purchased at the 2020 NZB Standardbred Sale in Christchurch for $10,000. 

“I picked him out on type. He had enough breeding and no one liked The Rocknroll Dances which made him cheap, which put him in my bracket. He had good manners but he’s let me down on race day to be honest. I thought he was a three or four win horse. It still could come.”  

BEAUDIENE QUICK STEP REPLAY

The DeFilippis have been training in partnership since 1999. Prior to that, he trained 277 between 1977 and 1999, in his own right. 

“Our Mana came along at the right time. I’d only been training for ten years. He’d had two other trainers and he ended up running second in two New Zealand Cups and second in an Auckland Cup. So he was a big boost at the time. It was good to get a good horse just when you needed it.” 

The couple’s first winner was Tomodachi (Sundon) at the Banks Peninsula meeting in May 1999. They’ve had many career highlights including Kym’s Girl (Man Around Town) winning the G1 New Zealand Cup in 2001 and Stent (Dream Vacant) the G1 Rowe Cup. Stent won thirty races and $1,156,750 while Kym’s Girl won eighteen and banked $601,524. 

“We’ve never done a big team, with sixteen about our limit.” 

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink