Chubb charges into Redwood history books

No matter what he does in later life, the bulky but brilliant Plymouth Chubb will long be remembered as one of Victoria’s most dominant two-year-old trotters after another big-race success on Sunday.

The juvenile squaregaiter’s victory in the Group 1 Aldebaran Park Redwood Classic was a first in the race for Great Western father and daughter Peter and Kerryn Manning, who teamed up as trainer and driver to win the iconic Maryborough feature.

After a clean getaway from the standing start, the powerful Majestic Son gelding sat parked up outside early leader Courage Stride (Chris Lang) for much of the trip and then pulled away from him in the home straight to win in convincing fashion.

As he cruised down to the line, the sport’s winningest reinswoman gave a little raise of the whip to celebrate a special achievement alongside her father, who is amazingly still winning Group 1 races at 76 years of age.

“He’s certainly back in the Group 1 form – hopefully he can hold it now for a little while with this horse. But he’s done a great job with this horse,” Kerryn told TrotsVision.

As Plymouth Chubb surged clear to win the ninth race of his 10-start career, Courage Stride was just run down for second by Ricki Alchin-trained NSW raider Tough Love, who poked home along the inside to grab the early leader in the shadows of the post.

“I actually had a good passage away. They walked up and went and the ones in front of me all trotted away so that was a big plus. He just made his way through the field,” Kerryn said.

“On the first turn, he went a little bit racy and I thought I was going to lose him. That’s why I went actually, because if I let his head go, he actually trotted good.

“I followed Greg (Sugars, driving High On Love) and once we got to the death, I was really happy. We were out of trouble and all he had to do was trot the rest of the way.”

Plymouth Chubb races for owner-breeders Gary Benson and Steven Hegyi, who pared their mare Pocket Fantasy with Majestic Son to produce the horse.

The dam had already been lucrative, producing the talented My Skypocket and Edge Hill among others, as well as winning five starts herself. They included Kerryn’s 2132nd career win in 2005, which saw her pass German reinswoman Rita Drees and become the most successful female driver in history.

“They’ve been sending Dad horses for a long time now,” Kerryn said.

“You went back through the family and there’s a lot of good horses there that they’ve had a lot of fun with. They’re great people and I’m just pleased they keep sending them to Dad and he’s done such a good job for them.

“I think Pocket Fantasy was my 3000^th winner back a way, so the family has been good to me.”

Plymouth Chubb’s nine wins have netted connections more than $100,000 in prizemoney.

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By  Tim O’Connor for HRV