Sacred Mountain wins for new owners

Sacred Mountain did the right thing for her new owners Merv and Meg Butterworth when she broke the hearts of her race rivals in the Olphert Contracting Gold Chip Final at Ascot Park today.

Sacred Mountain leading with a lap to run

The Muscle Hill three-year-old led for most of the journey and was left without any real competition when her main challenger Millie’s Gift broke on the final bend. That left Sacred Mountain clear, and she went on to win by fourteen and a half lengths in the hands of regular driver Blair Orange.

Winning by a wide margin

“Merv bought her on Monday. We haven’t had any discussion about where she’s going but she does trot nicely the Auckland way round (right-handed),” said trainer Brian Norman.

Returning to the birdcage

Today’s race was Sacred Mountain’s seventeenth and she’d always shown potential but had broken in a number of her previous starts.

“She’s always had ability but she just used to get sore on her back. We gave her a good break and I was hoping she’d come back better.”

Sacred Mountain is out of the seven-win Sundon mare Aceofdiamonds which was trained by Sam Moore for most of her career. She ran eighth in the 2007 Group One New Zealand Trotting Championship when trained by Phil Williamson.

Aceofdiamonds has been an excellent broodmare, leaving quality trotters Sky Commander and Ace Commander.

Sky Commander won three races in New Zealand for Norman before Butterworth bought him. He went on to win another thirteen races in Australia. He finished second in the Group One Victoria Trotters Derby and third in the Group One Trotters Cup at Gloucester Park. He won stakes of $152,536.

Ace Commander won five races here before he headed to Australia. He’s only had two starts in Aussie and has been off the scene since March 2020.

“He’s just on the come back now in West Australia and he’s pretty happy with where he’s at.”

Norman said the deal with Merv Butterworth includes sending Sacred Mountain back to New Zealand when she finishes racing.

“Ace Commander and Sky Commander were good but of the three she (Sacred Mountain) is the fastest by quite a margin. They were perfect racehorses whereas she used to hang and have wee niggles. I couldn’t find out what they were, but I never looked either.”

Today’s win was Sacred Mountain’s second.

Meanwhile smart two-year-old Sporty Charlie added another string to his bow when he proved too tough for a small field in the Macca Lodge Nuggets Final. In his first start at Wyndham, he flashed home late to win impressively but it today’s race he sat parked for the last lap and outstayed Over The Odds to win by half a length running the 2200 metres in 2-42.2.

Sporty Charlie (3) winning his second race

Returning to the birdcage

Winning connections

Thursday night was another stellar night for Southern Bred Southern Reared bred horses at Addington.

One Over All, an Angus Hall three year out of One Over Kenny showed great tenacity to come back when clearly headed to win. Lex Williams and the late Heather Williams bred him, and it was the three-year-old gelding’s fifth win in his first season of racing.

Romeo Shard bred by Debbie and Mark Smith, underlined his qualities when he impressively won his first race for Northern trainer Brent Mangos.

The Bettor’s Delight three-year-old is out of the Western Ideal mare Priscilla Shard. He has carried a private reputation for some time and he duly delivered at his third start. Priscilla Shard is a sister to a host of good winners including Likmesiah (13), Mighty Cullen (8) and Mister Presley (9).

Mark Purdon and Hayden Cullen have a full sister to Romeo Shard in their Rolleston stable. The Smiths have a yearling, Art Major filly out of Priscilla Shard and a rising yearling colt by Captaintreacherous.

To cap off the night, the John and Katrina Price bred Republican Party won his second race for Cran and Chrissie Dalgety.

Republican Party at Ascot Park

His winning margin was an impressive five lengths. He clocked a time of 2-22-1 for the 1980 metre mobile – a mile rate of 1-55.4. The New Zealand record of 2-19.6 is held by One Change.

The Bettor’s Delight two-year-old colt is out of six-win American Ideal mare Democrat Party.

View the results for Ascot Park today click here.

By Bruce Stewart