Deceptive Lee is deceptively quick at Phar Lap

Sunday afternoon (Sep. 2) harness racing at Phar Lap Raceway was given a little extra spice with the injection of the Spring Rewards series for horses that battle round in the rating system.

Races seven through ten were run for an upgraded stake of $20,000 and were met with a fantastic response.

Full fields and even betting races are always a hit with the punters and anyone who had been following the form through September should have struck gold with the win of the David Mitchell-trained Deceptive Lee (Captaintreacherous) in the penultimate.

The four-year old had gone some cracking races at Addington through the first month of Spring where he was a winner and a close up fourth and fifth behind some promising types.

In the two runs out of the money, he was storming home from back in the field and was only beaten narrow margins by the likes of Republican Party and Franco Mac, with Franco Norton, Franco Indie and Soundsofcash sprinkled in for good measure.

And given the two horses to beat him had run the quinella in the Lazarus Stakes at Addington Raceway just days earlier, it was quite a surprise to see Deceptive Lee starting at a double figure quote when he lined up behind the mobile at Timaru.

“He’s been building the last few starts,” said his trainer, breeder and co-owner David Mitchell.

“I thought Sunday it was quite a step back in company given the quality of fields he was racing and thought he would have to be there abouts, but you are never too sure from a draw like that. It was a race that we thought we would target when he started going well and it’s quite nice when it works out how you envisage.

“I know one of the owners got a wee bit of the price, but this one didn’t,” he laughed.

Deceptive Lee was patiently handled by his fill-in driver Matthew Williamson for the majority of the 2050m journey which was being run at a solid clip from the outset. It’s amazing what a $20,000 stake does for the spectacle as it’s not every day you see a three wide train for the last mile.

Mitchell’s runner was hemmed away three back in the one out line, but with the three and four wide line struggling to make ground on the 1:57.0 mile rate, gaps appeared, and Williamson took advantage.

Despite giving the leading bunch a decent start at the 200m, as he has done for much of his campaign this time in, he hit the hopples hard and charged home over the top of them rather arrogantly.

It was the fifth career win for the promising four-year-old to go with three placings and $41,875 in stakes from just 22 starts.

DECEPTIVE LEE REPLAY

The form he has shown since returning from a six-month layoff suggests the best is yet to come.

“He looks and feels as though he is coming too it, he’s been quite big the last few races, but he is just looking fitter and stronger all the time I feel.

“I have had two other horses who were good horses, not top horses, but good as far as I was concerned. They were Day’s Of Courage (Courage Under Fire | 11 NZ wins, $232,589) and Thumper (Power Bunny | 8 wins, $66,255) and I can remember breaking them in and this horse felt just the same. He was just an absolute natural.

“To be honest we started him a few times at two and expected a bit of him but he sort of just went round with them and he was much the same at three. It is just a maturity thing because now he has the right mix of strength to go with the speed he has. He’s a bloody nice cut of a horse, just temperament wise you have to be a wee bit careful. Early on we could have cooked him quite easily, but we’ve looked after him and he’s starting to reward us,” he said.

Deceptive Lee came about after Mitchell decided if he was going to carry on with breeding, he wasn’t going to do it by halves. While a good horse can come from anywhere as we know, the fastest route to success usually starts with a good maternal pedigree, so off to the sales he went.

“12 years ago, when my wife passed away, I thought I would go to the sales and buy something decent to get into a better family. I found a nice filly by Art Major out of a half-sister to Changeover and I think she cost me early thirties,” he said.

The yearling filly went by the name of Ming Lee and was out of the Falcon Seelster mare, Bhutan. She was out of the 1995 NZ 4YO Mare of the Year, Changerr (Vance Hanover) who was a full sister to the superstar Chokin. She would follow in the footsteps of her 1991 Broodmare of the Year dam, Nells Pride as a broodmare of the highest caliber, leaving a New Zealand Cup winner among a litany of race winning pacers.

With this sort of maternal backing, she ticked most of the boxes for Mitchell.

“She was a nice type, but she had that Art Major toe out in front that so many of his progeny have, but I just took that as an advantage in a way as if she had of been perfectly conformed there was probably little chance I would have been able to afford her,” he said.

By rolling the dice at the yearling sales, Mitchell, an astute educator of young horses had given himself two bites at the cherry with the opportunity to furnish the well-bred filly into a racehorse. Ming Lee however, had other ideas.

“She was the most difficult horse I have ever broken in,” he laughed.

“She was an absolute tart. She could get along a bit, but she broke down in the end, but man did she take a long time to even get going. Her progeny couldn’t have been more different in their attitude,” he said.

The progeny of Ming Lee have afforded Mitchell with all but two of his 13 training wins across the last two and half seasons and have all appeared to be pacers of some promise.

First foal Ashi Jetsun (Mach Three) suffered from a lack of size, as is often the case with the first foal and some of the stock of Mach Three.

“She was a little wee girl who was possibly going to win a race and that would be it, so we moved her on,” he said.

She placed once in 12 starts before her export to Australia but has wound up as a seven-race winner and is now at stud in NSW where she has produced a foal to Rock N Roll World.

Second foal Makasar Boy is a full brother to Ashi Jetsun and is a horse of some promise having won four and placed on 10 occasions with a 1:58.6-mile rate to his credit. He is on the comeback path after suffering an injury which has prevented him from racing for almost 12 months.

“He’s in a syndicate that have been with me for years and he’s done a good job for them before bowing his tendon last year. He just went to the trials yesterday (Oct 4.) where he sat in the trail and sprinted a quarter in 26, I think and beat the other two runners, but it was just a mad dash. Hopefully he can stay intact because he is a nice horse who has improved every year.

“He will be bloody handy around the Christmas circuit because he is so genuine and honest. We will look for some of the grass track meetings because he seems to enjoy that surface,” he said.

Third foal, Asian Elvis (Rocknroll Hanover) is just starting to come too it as a pacer as a four-year-old in the ratings system. The winner of two races had a luckless run in the last at Timaru, being forced to do a stack of work in the running and finishing down the track as a consequence.

“We thought a bit of him as a young horse. He’s typical of some of the Rocknroll Hanovers in that he does give his knee a wee brush, he has to wear spreaders, but he has had a lot of health and sound issues for a lot of his career. He’s a bit of an old war horse in a way, but I think he’s as well now as we’ve had him,” he said.

Micthell has a couple of young ones coming through from the family that he hopes will continue the winning trend including an Always B Miki two-year-old filly who is showing more toe than a roman sandal in her work at home.

“She doesn’t impress you on type,” he said.

“She is a tall narrow lanky type and looks like she has feet that belong to someone else, but she has a hell of a turn of speed. The first time we pulled her out we got a hell of a fright and thought where did that come from? She’s impressed us enough we have sent the mare back to Always B Miki, put it that way.

“We’re just a wee bit undecided whether we start her as a two-year-old. She doesn’t look like a natural juvenile, but she can run like one, so we will just have to wait and see. We also have a weanling Lather Up filly that we haven’t done anything with, she should be broken in in the next month or two.

“We also have a Christian Cullen mare we are breeding from called Pro Bono who is in foal to Captain Crunch. The first foal is now at stud and has just left a Locharburn colt. Her second foal is a four-year-old mare by He’s Watching and has won a race for Nick Le’Leivre.

“We’ve just broken in her Vincent colt whose two, but he just got a wee bit hot like her mother was, but I have had four Vincent’s and liked them all so far,” he said.

While Mitchell’s racing team has been relatively small of late, expect that to change over the next few months.

“There’s about nine or ten in work and three breakers. A client bought a Sweet Lou at the yearling’s sales this year called Song Sung Blue that would be the best of them. We haven’t had one before, but I quite like him and he’s just coming back in for his second prep now. Hopefully he keeps progressing,” he said

Beautifully, an American Ideal half-sister to Lazarus in Mitchell’s care has been retired by her owner Gavin Chin after showing little desire to be a racehorse. She is booked into Captaintreacherous for the coming spring.

Mitchell, Chin and Donna Williamson have a two-year-old full brother to the champion dual hemisphere stallion in work showing some real promise, however. Sinai Sermon is his name, and he was a good second yesterday at the Chertsey workouts having been unbeaten in his two previous public appearances.

SINAI SERMON TRIAL

Chin lent Lazarus’ dam, Bethany, to stable clients of Mitchell he has known for 20 years to produce another full brother and now yearling. Bethany unfortunately slipped her foal to Sweet Lou last season but is safely in foal to the same stallion and due to foal in November.

In the near future however, it will be Deceptive Lee who Mitchell will be hoping to see continue on his winning ways, but he is going to play the patient game with his talented pacer and avoid throwing him in the deep end too soon.

“We probably won’t look at Cup Week. We will have a run at Addington in a few weeks before giving him a wee freshen up and come again Christmas time,” he said.

For complete race results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink