‘Bittersweet’ deal sees classy pacer join All Star’s stable

A rising star in New Zealand harness racing’s open class pacing ranks, Anything Goes (American Ideal) is on the move after a high-priced deal was made to secure the future services of the lightly tried upset winner of the G2 Superstars Championship winner.

The former Steve Dolan-trained pacer joined the All Star’s stable of Mark and Nathan Purdon earlier this week on behalf of his new North American ownership group, which includes longtime New Zealand clients Gordon Banks and Marc Hanover.

The Florida-based pair have been involved in plenty of high-class New Zealand bred’s going back to the days of Tupelo Rose, with more recent examples involving the likes of American Dealer and Amazing Dream.

The latter was recently sold at the conclusion of her most recent North American success where she wired the field in claiming her first G1 on American soil, winning the Matchmaker Series final at Yonkers Raceway on Monday night.

Banks was excited about his latest Kiwi acquisition which he admits initially took even he by surprise.

“It came about in an unexpected way after we had made the deal for Amazing Dream,” said Banks.

“New Zealand agent Peter Larkin called me, and he had waited five years before finding us the right horse, and he called to say he had finally found one,” he said.

Anything Goes had been flying under the radar to the casual follower, but anyone who had kept tabs on the five-year-old could see the big son of American Ideal was being expertly placed by his trainer and connections.

Having been given plenty of time to mature into his frame, Anything Goes won his only start as a three-year-old before highlighting his potential when running second in the Listed $40,000 Uncut Gems at just his fourth race day start. After his Easter Saturday triumph his record stands at an impressive six wins and five placings from just 15 attempts.

“I watched the tapes and had Ivan Bridge vet the horse out and we are going forward with him. He’s been transferred to the All-Star’s stable and have high hopes for him,” said Banks.

“He is a lightly raced horse with legitimate reasons for being so, and he looks like he is on the upswing. His last race was his best and we are hopeful of having found another good one.

“Everyone I have spoken too thinks he should develop into a Cups horse, but I think the immediate plan is to take it easy with him. After all, he is a five-year-old with only 15 starts and we don’t want to suddenly change things and go crazy.

“He has the Uncut Gem’s next Friday and from there we will play it week to week. There is a series in Queensland which could be suitable if he shows he is trending in the right direction, but it will be in the hands of the trainers and there are no immediate plans to bring him over to North America and if he looks like being a Cup’s Class horse, he will most likely stay Down Under,” he said.

ANYTHING GOES REPLAY

That should be music to the ears of Devon Van Til, fiancé to former trainer and co-owner Steve Dolan who has achieved one third of her eighteen junior driving successes aboard Anything Goes. Better yet, she will now get to work with the horse most days having recently began employment at the All Star’s barn.

“She is loving it,” said Dolan.

“It was obviously bittersweet for me, but I think it was sweetened and still a little bit tasty him going there as well. Devon has already had a drive on him there and probably gets to see him even more now, she was besotted with the horse right from the get-go and I know it is easy to love nice horses, but she has always had a strong personal association with him.

“He carries a little bit of arrogance about him, he knows he’s a nice animal, but he has a bit of a softer demeanour with Devon then he does with me, he couldn’t care less if I am patting him or giving him attention him, but he loves when she gives it to him,” he laughed.

While Dolan will no longer have the enjoyment of putting the bridle on the burgeoning star, he can take plenty of satisfaction for backing his judgement in acquiring Anything Goes as a $38,000 yearling sales purchase back in 2019 and carefully moulding him into the horse he is today.

“If I am looking at yearlings, I have to like them on the page in all honesty and I never had a problem with American Ideal, I always loved him as a sire. He had a lovely head; he was sort of a strong quality about him that would develop over time where he would end up being this big physically intimidating horse which is what he is now.

“Back then he wasn’t the most perfect horse confirmation wise, when he stood, he was a little bit imperfect in behind, but I was particularly attracted to that American Ideal cross over the Bettor’s Delight with a little splash of In The Pocket further back in the family.

“I thought we had to buy him, and we had a bit of a shortfall financially but fortunately the late John Gould came to the party and for anyone whoever trained for him can attest too, John just said how much do you need? He filled the gaps for me and Neville Tilsley who co-bred and offered him at the sales did the same. It’s not always straightforward coming up with essentially $45,000 for a yearling by the time you add GST and other bits and bobs, but those guys helped us piece it together along with a bunch of the other owners and we really enjoyed the experience together,” he said.

Co-breeder Neville Tilsley echoed those sentiments, and you can hear it in his tone the amount of enjoyment he got out of racing the pacer who was the first foal out of his smart race mare, On The Town (Bettor’s Delight).

“Steve and Devon are wonderful and from the very beginning have said they would take their time with this horse and just saw something in him from the beginning,” said Tilsley.

Tilsley had never met Dolan prior to offering Anything Goes as a yearling with his great mate Brian West four years ago, but what transpired on sales day would in hindsight seem like fate bringing them together.

“Before he was sold during the day, I was going over towards the sales ring and went past a group of people standing outside and overheard them talking about On The Town and talking up her yearling,” said Tilsley.

“I didn’t know Steve and thought that’s great, he was talking to his mates as if he was trying to persuade them.

“After the colt went through the ring, I had one of the Studholme girls ask me to get back to the box and Steve was there with Brian. Steve was wondering whether I would be keen to retain a share in the colt and I didn’t even have to think about it. On The Town had given me so many thrills, and the whole experience of having her up in Auckland with Barry and Katrina was one I’ll never forget.

“It’s funny how it works out, I had sold 50% of him and a quarter of an hour later I had bought back 25%. Steve has been great and those are the intangibles, you can talk about the money, but I have met a whole bunch of new people through the arrangement and loved every minute of it.

“Every step of the way Steve has been so patient and said the horse will tell us when he’s ready. It was a great race to bow out on for us, we were in the stand and probably a group of maybe 15 of us just stood up and rose as one when he came surging through on the inside. I don’t usually have a bet but he was paying ridiculous odds and shouldn’t have been at a $28 quote. They have to step up at some stage and he had been racing great, and Steve and Devon have developed a very good racehorse,” he said.

Racing has a unique way of bringing people together and forging relationships that stand the test of time, and despite the sale of Anything Goes it would appear that while the stable star has departed on a new journey, the group involved with the horse will be only too happy to get the band back together in pursuit of the next one.

“I have absolutely loved the group I have trained for with this horse. It’s all good and well when you’re winning but it hasn’t always been plain sailing and they have always given me the confidence to do best by the horse,” said Dolan.

“We had a few problems with a foot abscess, but nobody ever pushed me to start him if I didn’t need too and not give him time. They are all levelheaded people who have been involved with horses before and understand where things can go wrong, and it’s nice when you have people supporting you rather than demanding they need to be somewhere at a certain time.

“He’s been a lovely horse to have around the stable to be honest and he always had that touch of class about him, but he wasn’t straight forward early on. He had that little bit of ‘rogue go west’ in him and could do a few things wrong, but I always felt like if we gave him the grace of time, everything would come right, and we could get him to a point where he could realise his full potential. By letting him come to us rather than force him into a corner as a young horse, he has developed into a lovely open class pacer in the making.

“He has to take another step up to be competitive with the top echelon of the Open Class talent and I am aware of that, but I can see him landing in this New Zealand Cup and being a really genuine chance to pick up a decent sized cheque. He is that sort of genuine staying horse that he will embrace the 3200m and is a good stand start horse by and large so a New Zealand Cup looks ready made for him. But if he ends up in North America, he is going to do a great job there also because he can just run the times and he’s best going when they are going at speed,” he said.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink