Injury-prone Bon repays the faith

Perseverance and patience are starting to win out for the Newberry harness racing stable at Shepparton with their striking black gelding Cabo Cruz (Mr Feelgood).

The Newberrys admit the five-year-old has been a work in progress, but finally “got there” at his third race start to kick off what could be a promising career.

“It’s been a very long wait to finally get ‘Bon’ to the races, but it’s been worth it. He’s just been so injury prone,” Maree said.

“I suppose we kept at it because we all knew very early that the horse had ability,” she said.

Cabo Cruz sent punters reeling at Cobram on July 11 with a 20/1 win in the Cobram Hotel Pace. Maree’s husband John took the reins and after working home late, snatched victory by a head in 1.57-6.

Maree said their son Matthew was impressed with the handsome youngster from the very first time he sat behind him.

“Matthew was quick to declare that the horse had heaps of ability—probably as much as any we’ve had over the years,” she said.

“But he’s had a few injuries along the way. He chipped a near side hind sesamoid and as a three-year-old got some filling in a leg which turned out not to be a tear or a hole, but fibres that knotted like a donut.

“So there’s been lots of rehab and time off. We’d bring him in, then he’d be out again. At one stage we were doing a lot of walking with him which helped.”

Maree and John bred Cabo Cruz and named him after a cape on the western extremity of the Granma Province in Cuba.

Maree said Cabo Cruz had only qualified seven or eight weeks prior to making his race debut last month.

“After he qualified, he had a few more trials, but he’s become a naughty boy in refusing to load, regardless if it’s the truck or the float,” she said.

“At what was supposed to be his first start, we couldn’t get him loaded and he had to be scratched. Matthew lives in Melbourne now and was travelling up to drive him and was 10 minutes from the Shepparton track when we had to tell him Bon wouldn’t load, so he was pretty disappointed.”

Maree said Cabo Cruz turned on quite the performance before his winning run at Cobram.

“We let him go at the tie-ups and he spotted the clerk of the course’s horse, spun around and took off!” Maree said.

“He was well and truly worked up, standing up on his back legs in the marshalling yard, got his earplugs loose then didn’t want them back in – but once he’s on the track he’s a gentleman,” she said.

“At home “Bon” is easy to shoe and so quiet—John actually leads two horses off him while he’s doing jog work.  He’s lovely and with that, and being a real looker he’s got a show career already lined up for when he retires.”

The dam of Cabo Cruz is Village Jasper-sired Shez Madam Jasper NZ who was unraced, but has proved a winner in the breeding barn with seven winners from eight foals to race.

“Madam fractured a front leg as a five-day-old foal. Then when she was 18 months, she ran through a fence and nearly severed a back leg off. We’ve spent a lot of money on her, but she’s been a great mare,” Maree said.

“The only foal not to make it was Denali, by Big Jim, who had a very enlarged gland in his throat. He’s now a ‘nanny’ at a thoroughbred place in Melbourne.

“Another of ‘Madam’s’ foals in Chain of Gold has produced two winners herself in Tweet About It (Always A Virgin) and Amber Alert (Mr Feelgood).”

John Newberry, who was born and grew up in New Zealand where his family operated a stud, is closing in on his 500th winner in Australia. He had a previous stint in Victoria before temporarily returning home.

Newberry was later based in Queensland, went back to NZ, before again crossing the Tasman Sea and making Shepparton home 11 years ago.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink