Big night for progeny of Habibti at Addington

Friday night (25 Nov.) harness racing action at Addington Raceway will be remembered as a night where the trotting females in our racing population were duly rewarded, with the first ever Group One fillies trot and the richest race feature for trotting mares run on the same programme.

The measures for success were there for all to see.

Two capacity fields put to bed any doubts as to whether the need for these types of races was warranted, with it becoming abundantly clear these were races connections had targeted for some time.

This led to even betting contests and despite Hidden Talent (Bacardi Lindy) starting an odds-on favourite in the Oaks, both features were won by runners paying double-figure quotes, a great result for GBR (Gross Betting Revenue) when turnover is calculated.

One of the double figure winners was the blue-blooded daughter of Andover Hall in Resolve who took out the inaugural $50,000 Group Two Mares Handicap Trot.

The Paul Nairn trained trotting mare was the perfect foil for a race of this caliber being out of former glamour filly, Habibti (Love You). Resolve had been knocking on the door for a feature race win through the Spring having ran second in the G3 Jasmyns Gift at Oamaru, and also finishing fourth behind the Open Class trotters in the G3 DG Jones Memorial.

“We were pretty confident she would go a nice run actually,” said her co-owner/breeder, David Butt.

She cut her leg on Cup Day, and I had her at home walking through the sea healing it up. We sent her back to Paul in the last week, and she seemed pretty well, and Paul was pretty happy with her.

“We thought if things went her way, she could be in the money. To see her put on a great display in the first ever mares feature was exciting actually, really exciting,” he said.

Resolve was away well for her regular pilot, Bob Butt, electing to stay handily in the running line for the first lap with a solid tempo being set up front by The Bloss (The Pres) and Sarah O’Reilly.

With a mile left to run in the 2600m contest, Resolve was hooked out and sent around the field and worked forward to assume control of the leading position she so dearly covets.

Once there, Butt steadied the tempo before stacking them up and injecting some speed down the back a final time.

In doing so, he made it awfully hard for the runners back in the field leaving some of the more fancied back markers with a stack of work to do if they were to be winning chances.

Turning for home, Resolve skipped away by a couple of lengths and never looked like being reeled in, this time turning the tables on a fast finishing I Dream Of Jeanie (Monarchy) who had beaten her in the G3 at Oamaru.

The Bloss went her usual honest race close up for third having led and trailed the trip, while race favourite Peregrine (Majestic Son) was excellent in fourth.

The closing splits of a 58.2 last half off the front told the story for those trying to make ground on the winner who had started from a 10m handicap with only four mares in front of her. The winning time was a tidy 3:17.8 and the mile rate was a respectable 2:02.4 for the 2600m journey.

RESOLVE REPLAY

It was win number six for Resolve at just her 23rd race day start with her CV also boasting an impressive 8 placings to go with $84,345 in stakes.

As good as Resolve has been in her young career to date, Butt was adamant that the now G2 winner would be in the broodmare paddock now had it not been for the bolstering of the trotting calendar given how hard it is for mares to compete in the Open Grades.

“It’s great really, otherwise she was going to find her mark reasonably quick and with the mares’ races on the programme spread throughout the calendar now, it’s probably enough for her to have another year racing instead of heading to the broodmare paddock. She would probably be in foal now otherwise.

“There are the two up north earlier in the year if we choose to target them, otherwise we can stay around here and target the ones in Canterbury. She will probably be put in foal next spring and can race for a wee while in foal as well,” he said.

Resolve is the second foal from Butt’s champion race filly, Habibti, the winner of three Oaks and two Derbies as a three-year-old. Habibti had been a bit of a shy breeder since producing her first foal, Astound (Majestic Son), via embryo transfer while still racing and went three fruitless years before producing her G2 winning daughter at stud.

And while it is now clear that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree in terms of ability, Butt explains that it wasn’t always a home run prospect early, despite having the genetic deck stacked in Resolve’s favour.

“We did the first couple of years with Resolve ourselves. She did take a lot of making and wasn’t a natural trotter early.

“I don’t really know why that was. As a yearling, she couldn’t trot around at much better than jogging speed. We thought she was going to be doing well to make the grade, but we gave her to Paul Nairn to see what he thought of her and 12 months later, he qualified her, and we haven’t looked back.

“She is a little bit like her mother in that she has a good motor and is a good stayer like Habibti was.

“Habibti was the best horse I’ve ever owned. She was just such a great three-year-old, really. She wasn’t quite as good when she graduated from Open Class as she was dealing with a few lameness issues and a few breathing problems. But as a filly, she was an outstanding wee trotter, given the crop she was racing,” he said.

He’s not wrong. She beat both Royal Aspirations (Monarchy) and Sheemon (Monarchy) as well as 25 race winning Australian raider, Blitzthemcalder (Metropolitan) when winning the NZ Trotting Derby in 2013.

HABIBTI DERBY REPLAY

It proved to be a great night for Habibti’s progeny with her third foal, Confessional running second in the $50,000 G2 2YO Sires Stakes Championships earlier on the programme.

The two-year-old son of Father Patrick will have his chance this Sunday to replicate the deeds of his mother with Group One glory beckoning should he be good enough to win the 2YO colts and geldings feature on Grand Prix Day at Addington.

Habibti fans won’t have to wait a great deal longer to see whether she can produce another classic performer with two more progeny on the ground and waiting in the wings.

“Habibti has a yearling full brother to Confessional, and she has just had a Tactical landing colt a few weeks ago,” said Butt.

“Rob Patterson who is the partner in Habibti with Cath and I have taken the Tactical Landing colt and we have taken over the Father Patrick yearling. We are putting Habibti back in foal to Bird Parker this season,” he said.

For complete Addington results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink