McCaffrey would ‘love’ to win feature named after Cambridge icon

Tamihere harness racing trainer, Sean McCaffrey, has a long and storied history with legendary horseman, Charlie Hunter (ONZM) having trained dozens of winners for him including multiple Group One race wins.

On Thursday night (Apr. 6) at Cambridge Raceway, he hopes to add another page in the chapter by taking out the race named in his honour with the G1 New Zealand Trotting Oaks winner, Con Grazia Love (Love You).

The Charlie Hunter Handicap Trot is the sixth race on the Waikato Harness Racing Club’s action packed 12 race programme, with the $22,500 feature trot having its second iteration after being run as a Free For All in 2022 when won by Bolt For Brilliance (Muscle Hill).

Hunter is a stalwart of the Waikato and Cambridge region having shifted his family there in the 70’s from which he launched careers of some of New Zealand’s champions of the track including the mighty Young Quinn.

“I’ve known Charlie since I was a boy when he shifted down the road from me in Cambridge,” said McCaffrey.

“He was a giant in the game at the time. He actually wrote me a license when I went to work in Macau before I even had a license to drive. I never worked for him which is a bit peculiar given most of the region did at one stage or another,” he laughed.

“When he gave up training himself, he sent the odd one across the road to me to work and there were some pretty good horses among them. Horses like Tomba (Ambro Invasion) and Jaka (Holmes Hanover) who was the last of his father’s breed and that line going way back with Vin Scott. He has always been pretty good to me,” he said.

When Hunter scaled back on his breeding numbers and had nothing left from his own line of mares which has provided him with so much success, he sent McCaffrey to the sales with the idea of picking up a trotter to have some fun with. He settled on a son of Monarchy whom he snapped up at the bargain price of $7000.

“Charlie asked me what was wrong with him! I told him nothing that I could see. But he didn’t turn out too bad looking back on it,” he quipped.

For McCaffrey, the opportunity to train dual G1 winner Sovereignty (Monarchy) for Hunter was a special journey that saw them win 28 races including the Great Northern Derby and National Trot among a string of stellar performances which saw the special trotter wrack up $780,000 in stakes.

He was six-time Group One placed and put in some gallant performances from age group features where he was an otherworldly second in the New Zealand Trotting Derby after being left three wide for the entirety of the final lap, to the Open Class ranks where he battled with champions such as Stig and I Can Doosit.

“He got beaten half a head in the Dominion and half a head in the FFA one year after another,” rued McCaffery.

“He was just a super horse, and we were lucky to have him. But I think it was a great match for him having Charlie as an owner, he was very patient with him and didn’t rush him early even though I think he could have raced as a two-year-old and beat them up.

“Charlie and I were always on the same page with our thinking, and I don’t whether he molded me that way, but we generally thought the same thing at the same time and was a pleasure to train for. We also had Lemond who we bought for $14,000 and he wasn’t a bad type winning a G1 Anzac Cup,” he laughed.

It wasn’t a bad run by any stretch of the imagination, and speaking with McCaffrey it becomes abundantly clear that the gifted horseman would dearly love to add his name to the winners list tomorrow night, not just for the sentimental value but doing so would see his talented daughter of Love You back to her brilliant best.

Con Grazia Love heads into tomorrow night’s assignment third up in this campaign having strung together some very tough fourth placings in resumption from a season that last year saw her breakthrough for G1 honours as well as being awarded the accolade of NZ 3YO Trotting Filly of the Year.

CON GRAZIA LOVE | NZ OAKS REPLAY

Although she was ultimately unplaced in the G1 New Zealand Trotting Derby a week after her demolition job in the New Zealand Oaks, the daughter of Love You was monstrous in defeat after leading up and being eyeballed a long way from home. The effort for fourth showed she is capable of mixing it with the best in either sex.

McCaffrey was non plussed when asked what he thought with the now four-year-old mares first two performances at Alexandra Park where she was beaten by some smart types including a NZ Record performance by Double Delight after leading throughout at her most recent attempt.

“We probably could have been a little bit better, and I’ve been a little bit soft on her really. She has sort of always been a little bit light framed and you’re always trying to keep the condition on her and hold it. She is still going to be a little while before she really fills out, so you are really reluctant to get her as fit as she needed to be first up.

“I said to Maurice last week if she went 46 off the front, I don’t think they can beat us, they aren’t gunna go 2:44.5. Well, they did,” he laughed.

“She really just got found out the last 40 yards to Herlihy’s horse who is a freak, and we are just lucky she isn’t there this week. I have taken the blinds off her and will have the running pole on her on Thursday. But really, I thought I just had to crank the handle a bit since and I think you will find she is a lot fitter this week,” he said.

Con Grazia Love is joined by five further runners including two black type mares in the John Dickie trained Resolve (Andover Hall), and the Jo Stevens trained Rosie (Peak) who both took out G3 feature mare’s trots at Cambridge Raceway back in January.

The latter joins Con Grazia Love and the Dave and Clare McGowan trained Liaison (Love You) off the 10m tape while Resolve will be giving them all a sight off the back mark of 30m. The other pair making up the Charlie Hunter Handicap Trot is the McMullen/Reid trained Take The Monarch (Monarchy) as the sole front line runner, with the Ross Paynter trained Anditover as the sole runner of 20m.

“She is a good beginner and I think this week she will be working her way forward where I expect her to run them along if she gets the front and could prove hard to catch,” said McCaffrey.

Bookies agree and have the Love You mare as the clear cut $2.40 favourite to take out the $22,500 feature.

Safely through tomorrow night’s assignment, McCaffrey is plotting a cautious path with his talented trotter and is in rush to thrust her in the deep end of Open Class racing before her time.

“We sort of learned the hard way with Yagunnakissmeornot. We probably threw her in the Rowe Cup a year before she was ready, and I don’t think she really ever fully recovered from the experience and got back to her best. The ownership group are a great bunch and realise if we look after her now, she will repay us in the future and we will pick and choose some sensible races that are available to us in the short term,” he said.

Con Grazia Love is joined on the twelve-race programme by a pair of pacing stablemates in the debutants, Sharkntatties (Art Major) and Norvic Charlie (Sweet Lou).

Sharkntatties will be the first to open his account in the second on the card and has drawn the pole for his first look at the mobile on race night. The three-year-old filly is the second foal out of the lightly raced three-win Courage Under Fire mare, Rariza.

“I had her older brother having bought him as a weanling and he was strumming along pretty good. She was in the online weanling sale that was held during Covid, and she was a good looker. Spud Crosse jumped in and bought her, and she does go really well. We have had a bit of issues with her steering and things, and I shouldnt say this because you can get hung for it, but she can run like hell.

“She complicates her life sometimes with her steering and hitching but I would like to say we have straightened that out in the last few weeks since she had a workout. Drawn the pole is the best place for her on debut, because life is uncomplicated when you’re running in a straight line and minding your own business.

“Put it this way, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she ran a good race and finished in the money,” he said.

Not faring quite as well as his stablemate is the regally bred, Norvic Charlie who has drawn in barrier eight in the fifth event on the programme.

“He’s been a bit of a work in progress,” said McCaffrey.

“He is a big leggy son of Sweet Lou and I think the better ones of his stock take a bit of time so we have been a bit cautious with him and given him a few runs at the trials. Being drawn eight is not going to help him. David Butcher drive him on Saturday and he run to the line good in 2:45 so it’s not beyond him, but I think the traffic is going to complicate it as he isn’t going to loop the field and run away from them or anything.

McCaffrey has quite a bit of history associated with the three-year-old gelding having trained both his dam and grand dam who were capable of footing it with the elite in their sex.

The son of Sweet Lou is the fifth foal out of La Norvic De Milo (Art Major), the winner of the 2012 G2 Delightful Lady Classic, while her own dam, Belletti (Badlands Hanover) was a dual G1 placegetter having the misfortune of being born in the same crop as Spicey, One Dream and Running On Faith.

“They were both very good fillies, but the mother has actually been very disappointing so far. The first couple by A Rocknroll Dance were a bit heartless but this fella seems like he is interested. He is a bit dopey, but he has figured it out, but from the eight hole it’s going to be more about experience, and he has to go somewhere so it might as well be at the races,” he said.

In the 40 seasons McCaffrey has had his driving ticket, 2022 was his third highest number of race day drives and while I didn’t realise it at the time to ask him what was behind the increase in steers, I did question him about his sole drive behind the Luk Chin trained mare in the last on the programme.

“Alana!” he exclaimed.

“She is a grumpy little thing and Luk has got a bit brassed off with her the last couple of weeks and I do most of the driving on her at home, so we thought it was worth a nudge. She is a good honest trotter and should go away with them and make her presence felt,” he said.

For complete Cambridge race fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink