Raceday nerves still bite for Pete

Master Great Western trainer Peter Manning admits that after years of having horses compete at the highest level, he still gets a touch of the nerves with the very good ones.

“I’d probably say that the better they are, the more nervous I get,” Manning said.

“You always have it in the back of your mind about whether they will do everything right or will someone bring along a better one,” he said.

And the well-liked horseman certainly appears to have found another of those “very good ones” when it comes to his highly promising two-year-old trotter Plymouth Chubb (Majestic Son-Pocket Fantasy (In The Pocket).

“Fatty”, as Plymouth Chubb is known at home around the stables, continued on his merry winning way at Stawell on Monday afternoon with a victory in the feature event, the $14,000 Maori Legend-his seventh consecutive win.

Among his victories have been the $50,000 Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic Group 1 Final in May and the only blot on the young trotter’s copybook was when he broke in his race debut at Melton back in March and finished eighth.

Manning said he took a liking to Plymouth Chubb when he was breaking him in.

“He was a really nice horse and did whatever you asked. He’s still very laid back when you consider he’s only a two-year-old,” he said.

“If anyone turned up to our property and watched him work, they’d be amazed. He just plods along at about a 2.18 or 2.19 rate. I suppose he could carve out a 29 second quarter if I really made him go which would be pretty good on our track, but he is just a very casual type.

“He is really strong and has deceptive speed. His stable name of “Fatty” speaks for itself and I don’t know if I’ll ever get him trimmed down.”

Despite his casual demeanour at home, Plymouth Chubb has given Manning and his champion reinswoman daughter Kerryn their share of anxious moments in his short career.

At his most recent win the trotter broke in the score up, but Kerryn managed to get him back within six metres of the mobile by despatch.

“He was a bit naughty but luckily didn’t give them too big a start,” Kerryn said.

“He’s starting to learn the racing game now and getting a bit keen, but he’s certainly a nice horse,” she said.

Peter agreed there were a few anxious moments.

“But nothing like what he did in his run in the VicBred. He made a real mess of it galloping in the run, and losing 50 metres,” Manning said.

It was that run that stamped Plymouth Chubb as a potential star of his age group, making up the lost ground and running away to win by 17 metres.

Manning said Plymouth Chubb would next race at Ballarat on October 16, undoubtedly enroute to the prestigious Redwood at Maryborough at the end of the month.

Manning said the grand dam of Plymouth Chubb was a pacing bred mare named Kims Fantasy, sired by Smooth Falcon.

“She was a little trier and despite her breeding actually raced as a trotter,” he said.

Kims Fantasy won 20 races with 16 placings between 1995 and 2000. She took out the George Gath feature event at Moonee Valley, driven by Kerryn Manning, and then later finished unplaced in two heats of the Inter Dominion series.

The owners Gary Benson and S.K Hegyi then sent Kims Fantasy to the broodmare barn.

“I had all of her early ones. The boys have certainly had a lot of good horses and when they decided to sell them all up, Pocket Fantasy and Garston Girl (mother and daughter) didn’t get sold,” Manning said.

Both had success on the racetrack-Pocket Fantasy (In The Pocket) had five wins for $38K in the mid 2000s, as well as a second in the $100K Breeders Crown final at Bendigo to Grant Dixon-trained Super Command. Garston Girl (Lawman) posted 10 wins for $65K including a Melton triumph in late 2017 in a $16K TMO/TM1 race.

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink