Star mare Amore Vita dies tragically in training

There is a saying in harness racing that bad luck and injuries only happen to the ‘good ones’.

While we know that not to be the case, the loss of a champion brings with it its own news cycle and seems to resonate more with the general public in the sense of the trials and tribulations that come with racing an equine athlete.

They aren’t machines, but living and breathing creatures who regardless of capabilities mean something different to each and every person connected to them.

Having just experienced the ultimate high of training his first Group One winner on his home track at Addington Raceway, Canterbury trainer Steve Dolan received the phone call no owner ever wants to receive this morning informing him of tragic news.

His star race mare, Amore Vita (Art Major), a four time Group One winner and earner of over $668,000 had died suddenly in training having suffered a heart attack while out jogging on the Tonkin/Stewart training facility.

“It was a devastating phone call to receive, and I don’t mind admitting that I shed a few tears when Clayton called me to break the news,” said Dolan.

“Clayton is a big specimen of a man and I could tell as soon as I heard his voice that it was a fatal injury. Given her future stud career and everything that was before her, you could live with a tendon injury or something where you still have your horse.

“Look at Millwood Nike for example, she will be out for six or so months and at the very worst still have her future in the broodmare paddock,” he said.

Amore Vita was a revelation of the Australasian female pacing ranks since being shipped to join the Nathan Purdon stable in 2021.

She had her first three starts at Addington in Christchurch, however long before the daughter of Art Major raced, Dolan’s mind wandered to sending her to Australia to compete.

“I thought she was good enough and would be suited to the style of racing over there. Throw in the fact she was paid-up for the Breeders Crown and Vicbred and it became an easy decision,” Dolan said.

“She was beaten at her first two starts here at home, but it turned out she was quite sick, so we put her out and started again and she won her third start by seven lengths at Addington. I asked Nathan Purdon to watch that to see if he wanted to take her … I got a thumbs up text as soon as they crossed the line.”

Amore Vita won 10 of her first 13 starts for Purdon – which included the Group One 2YO Vicbred Final  – but winning the Redcliffe Oaks at that 13th run took its toll.

“That’s the night we found out our Superwoman had a chink,” he laughed. “It was the first time we’d really rushed her off the gate and, although she won, it fired her up and she wasn’t herself for a while.”

She went winless in her next nine starts, her last five with Purdon and the first four in the care of Stewart and Tonkin whom Purdon recommended taking over the training duties with his impending shift home.

“We were always confident she would get out of the bad habits and back to her best … I loved the day I got a message from Clayton (Tonkin) saying they had sorted her out and she would win the Vicbred (last year),” Dolan said.

History tells us she would go on to win the Vicbred 3YO Fillies Final on New Years Eve, which seemed to catapult the daughter of Art Major in her four-year-old season like she had been fired out of a cannon.

Amore Vita would then go on and sign off an incredible 2023 by becoming just the second ever female pacer to win all three divisions of the Vicbred Series with a win in the Group One 4YO Mares Final which would consequently be her third to last start of her career.

Among her eighteen career victories were the aforementioned four Group Ones, a Group Two and two Group Three’s with her lifetime mark of 1:50.5 coming in the Group One $150,000 ‘The Golden Girl’ at Melton.

“Im just so gutted for everyone involved,” said Dolan, whose tone was that of a broken man.

“Having bred her and had so much to do with her the whole way through her career, it definitely hits different. She was like a pet. It’s probably equitable to losing your favourite dog.

“Every horse means something different to everyone involved. I would have been gutted had anything happened to a horse like Anything Goes but Devon (Van Til) was always a lot closer to him then I was.  Losing Castellina Lover (dam of Amore Vita) would be earth shattering and she is at the top of the tree for me, but Vita would be a very close second.

“She was so much more to us than what she did on the track. Especially when you factor in Grant Adamson and how good to me he was early on in my career having allowed me to train the mother, and then continue to race her and some of the progeny with his family and the estate.

“Karen (Adamson) has just been unbelievable with Castellina Lover in giving me the full autonomy to make decisions with her as a broodmare and the resulting progeny. I’ve had free rein in choosing the stallions, selecting which foals we keep and what ones we are going to sell. And I always told her, when we get that special one we are going to race it and win some nice races together.

“So for her to then go on and fulfil that promise was very rewarding and the journey she took us all on is something we have to cherish going forward and be mindful of the good times and keep moving forward,” he said.

Moving forward, Dolan and the Adamson family still have the virtue of breeding from the family that has given them so much success. Albeit not their Group One star, but a more than capable supporting cast with some up and comers on the verge of making it to the track.

“We still have a lot of the family with a few half sisters and obviously the mare who at 14 is still relatively young. We have a Bettor’s Delight two-year-old out of the mare heading to the trials next week. She has also produced a cracking foal by Tall Dark Stranger who aside from Vita would probably be the second best foal she has produced and has the looks of a racehorse for the future,” he said.

While the focus has abruptly shifted towards the future with a cruel twist of fate, Dolan was able to collect himself to look back fondly on the once in a lifetime prospect, which under the cloud of emotions he was facing, seemed to bring out some of the cheeky joy and charisma we have become accustomed too from the Yaldhurst horseman.

AMORE VITA | VICBRED 4YO MARES REPLAY

“‘Vita’ just had some immense quality about her right from day dot. She just had the most unbelievable presence as a foal and is hands down the best her mother has produced,” said Dolan.

“She was never the best gaited horse as a young horse, but that’s not really what you are looking for at that stage, you really want to see them have the right attitude towards becoming a racehorse and she just had that bit of x factor about her that she was always going to be a bit special.

“I remember sitting in the cart with her one day at home before she won her maiden and thought, yup, you are every bit as good as I thought you were,” he said.

When asked if he ever felt the urge to bring his star mare home to race under his tutelage, Dolan was resolute in the decision he and the connections made in maximising her potential across the Tasman.

“As a horseman you soon realise that your job is to give each and every horse the best possible chance to succeed and I realised really early on that her future racing career would be in Australia where they have such a wealth of opportunities for the fillies and mares. I had no problem in sending her over there and would do it again in a heartbeat if we had the right horse to do it with,” he said.

In a career littered with highlights, Dolan found it hard to isolate a couple that stand out among the rest.

“There were so many great memories and experiences with her. As an owner, anytime you get the chance to line up in a Group One race is a thrill in itself. But to get to travel with such close friends and ultimately family and compete and succeed on the biggest stage is something I will never forget.

“Probably one of the coolest memories was standing in a hotel across the road from The Meadowlands when I was in North America earlier in the year. I was watching in the hotel corridor in my pyjamas the night she got up in the final stride to win and it taught me that it doesn’t matter whether you are on course or halfway round the other side of the world, winning big races with a horse you have had so much to do with is a thrill that never gets old.

“We have had the most unbelievable season from winning Group Ones with her across the Tasman to the thrill of winning my first Group One at Addington a fortnight ago. It kind of brings you back to earth with a bit of a thud, but we just have to turn the page now and look forward to what lies ahead,” he said.

While replacing a superstar mare whose book had more then a few unwritten chapters left to be told will be impossible, Dolan does have a silver lining on the horizon lining up last start Group One winner, Our Shangri Lana in the $110,000 Group One Ace Of Diamonds at Addington Raceway on Sunday afternoon.

Drawn handily in barrier three, she looks like she should be able to adopt similar tactics which saw her upsetting the same opposition on Show Day after leading off the gate and bullying her way to clear maidens in grand style.

Should she double up, it would be a welcome tonic and a somewhat serendipitous end to a week that brought with it such tragedy.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink