The ’Naki gets Group One

Outside of Yulestar, few Taranaki standardbreds have won Group One features. But that changed on Friday night when Shezsofast (Vincent) bred by Phil Fleming took out the Caduceus Two Year Old Fillies Classic in Auckland.

SHEZSOFAST REPLAY

The Fleming family is synonymous with harness racing in Taranaki and Phil is a third generation Fleming.

His grandfather RJ (Ritchie) Fleming trained horses and owned Ricochet which won nine races for Denis Nyhan while Phil’s uncle Laurie Fleming was also a successful trainer. His best two winners were Rosie O’Grady (11) and Young Tennessee (11).

Phil’s father Brian had a fair amount of success too. His best two horses were Wicklow Bay and River Polka.

Phil and his late father originally owned River Polka but when Brian passed away Phil invited three of his brothers, Brendan, Tim and Nick to take up his father’s share.

“At that time River Polka hadn’t raced for Tony Herlihy but from all reports it looked as though she was going to be okay. So they came in and we had a lot of fun with her as a racehorse,” Phil said.

River Polka won eleven races and ran second to Adore Me in the 2013 Northern Breeders Stakes before heading to the breeding paddock.

“The first few foals we bred together. But they’ve got broodmares themselves so I ended up leasing their half-share.”

The breed goes back to a Tuapeka Lodge bred mare Happy Hooker which Brian purchased at the Claudelands Sales in the mid 1980s. She won once in seventeen starts before heading to stud.

Her first foal Isle Of Inishfree (Roydon Glen) won three of her twenty four starts while her next three foals Wicklow Hill (Vance Hanover), Wicklow Bay (Butlers BG) and Wicklow Way (Holmes Hanover). All performed well and Wicklow Bay’s eleven wins included the 1998 Waikato Flying Mile.

It’s from Isle Of Inishfree that this family’s recent success has come from. At stud she’s left Riverdance which won five of her New Zealand starts before winning a further six in Australia, while Christian Cullen gelding River Waltz won nine of his twenty two starts before advancing his career in Australia.

“It’s nice to make that particular line more current.”

Isle Of Inishfree’s last foal was River Polka and her sixth foal is Shezsofast.

Shezsofast was earmarked early for the Yearling Sales and Phil did most of the preparation before she was finished off by Graham Brogden.

“I named her that because she used to shoot around the paddock real quick. I thought she better be quick or I’d look pretty silly (laughter).”

Mark and Nathan Purdon became her owners, buying her for $35,000 at the Karaka Sales. At the time they were training her half-sister Without You which had won three races and ran second to Winelight in the NZB Standardbred Harness Million for two year old fillies.

“They were the only ones buying the Vincent’s that year.”

Fifty five year old Phil is a dairy farm consultant. He also co-owns with his brothers a 150 hectare dairy farm with a 40 hectare runoff attached where they milk 420 cows. He runs the horses on his eleven acre lifestyle block.

He also trained horses and still holds a trainer’s licence.

“The farm consultancy business is pretty much full time. I’ve got two daughters, and I follow their sport.”

Phil’s best horses have been Our Wicklow (9), Broadway (6) and Sheikh Yabooty (5).

As well as two of his own mares he’s also breeding in partnership with Donny Bublitz.

“He’s got a great block down at Hawera which is terrific for rearing horses.”

Fleming is currently breeding from three mares – Ideal Flybye, River Polka and Smokinhotcheddar.

“My mares didn’t get in foal until late last year for whatever reason and two of them are going to be quite late (foaling) so I’ll probably give them a year off. Unfortunately River Polka had twins early on and it messed her up a bit so she missed getting in foal last year. I’ve sent her up to Norwegian Park to get her in foal this year.”

The horses he doesn’t sell are sent north to Andre Poutama.

Last year Fleming entered two yearlings in the Karaka Sale, including a full brother to Without You. He was disappointed with the results.

“Tate Hopkins prepared him and I got up to about 30k with him but I thought he was worth more than that so I brought him home. He’s got him now to train. The other one was out of Ideal Flybye and a full sister to Kahlua Flybye. She never sold either. At the time she was probably on the small side but she’s grown. Andre Poutama’s got her.”

So where does the River part of the name stem from?

“Dad was naming them after Riverdance. Les Pettifer who had that good horse Falcon’s Rise, has gone in with me in River Polka’s latest foal by Captain Crunch. That’s why we’ve called it River Rise. The Polka name came from the South American dance.”

Not one to miss an opportunity, Phil has also ventured into the thoroughbred industry.

“It was about the time Covid hit and it looked like there’d be no racing in the CD so I thought bugger it, I might as well get a galloper. So I went to Waikato Stud and bought a horse with good bloodlines. She had bad knees so I’m breeding from her now.”

She’s an O’Reilly mare named Ohau Strong. Fleming has a yearling out of her and she’s off this spring to Hilal, a Fastnet Rock stallion that stands at Grangewilliam Stud in South Taranaki.

“I’ve taken breeding rights to Hilah. It’s a bit different the galloping game and unlike the harness game you can buy into stallions.”

Although Friday night’s win by Shezsofast is not the first Group One winner for the Fleming family, it was their first in New Zealand.

Phil’s father Brian bred Gaius Caesar (Julius Caesar) which won over half a million dollars. His thirty five wins included three Group Ones – The Len Smith Mile, Bohemia Crystal FFA and The Cordina Sprint.

“It makes it all worthwhile when you get a result like that. It gives you a big buzz.”

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink