Walkinonsunshine prances to Oaks glory in the rain

Ohoka harness racing trainer, Tom Bagrie, gained the second Group Race success of his young career when his quality trotting filly, Walkinonshunshine (Creatine) scored in the G3 $27,000 Northern Trotting Oaks at Alexandra Park this evening (Apr. 4)

Harnesslink followers will note that we reported yesterday she would relish getting back to the mobile after making an uncharacteristic mistake in her first look at the ‘ribbon of light’ last week.

Despite getting things wrong from the stand, she was a tragedy beat in her resumption at Addington in April and was desperately unlucky when 4th in the G1 Ace of Hearts for two-year-old trotting fillies in December on the same track.

This is a filly that Bagrie has always had a lot of time for, and thanks to a typically ice cool drive from ‘the iceman’ Tony Herlihy, his charge was victorious in the tricky Alexandra Park conditions.

“It was an AG special,” said Bagrie of the drive.

“And it’s nice to be on the right side of a drive like that for a change, he’s driven plenty that have got us beat when wearing others colours in the past,” he laughed.

It was Herlihy’s third winning drive in the newly minted fillies feature with only five previous editions being run with group status. His other two Northern Oaks successes coming aboard his own charges in Double Delight and Tickle Me Pink.

The breakthrough North Island group race success proved a much welcome tonic for Bagrie, who had been lamenting a tough run of late whereby he has battled a few health issues in the barn and general bad luck with the team at home and on race day.

“Winning tonight was bloody good. As you do as a horse trainer you have your good runs and your bad runs and things for one reason, or another just haven’t been working out the way we would have liked of late. It was the perfect race to hopefully get us back on the front foot and we are just absolutely over the moon,” he said.

Herlihy bounded to an early lead aboard Walkinonsunshine with the Robert and Jenna Dunn trained Kiss And Run happy to hand up for an early trail before blowing to bits and extinguishing her chances entering the first turn.

Walkinonsunshine was dictating her own terms in front with a lead up time in 43.6 fairly sedate going, yet the eight-horse field was strung out in Indian file for much of the first lap.

Dylan Ferguson was the first to realise Herlihy might be pinching things in front and hooked out from four back the markers with Shez Bella, flushing out David Butcher aboard the Arna Donnelly trained Virginia Clowers.

That left the unbeaten High Energy one out and four back with Rasmussen content to sit on the back of the punters second elect in The Ivy League who many would assume would be the ideal horse to follow home.

Herlihy and Walkinonsunshine had other ideas and with no mid race pressure began to turn up the wick down the back straight where it became abundantly clear that The Ivy League was trotting far from fluently in her gait and taking High Energy nowhere fast.

By the time Rasmussen elected to take the hot pot to the inside of the tiring Purdon/Phelan filly, Herlihy and Walkinonsunshine were off and gone skipping three lengths clear of the chasing pack and putting pay to them at the top of the straight.

As race caller Aaron White so aptly put it, “Walkinonsunshine, she is walking through the puddles tonight” as she cruised to a crushing six length win over Virginia Clowers with High Energy making up late ground to snare third from It Ain’t Me Babe.

With a closing last half of 57.7 off the front, had High Energy been given a cart into the race it’s unclear whether last season’s champion filly would have picked up the winner, such was the manner in which she trotted.

WALKINONSUNSHINE REPLAY

“We obviously made the call to go to Auckland and we thought we had a horse who was going to be competitive, but you never actually know until you go up there and put yourself in the race how you are going to measure up against them,” said Bagrie.

“Even her first start back at Addington she was squeezed in the home straight and her trials since have been good, but her lack of standing start experience tripped her up last week.

“Zac came off the track and said she felt good in her work tailing the field, so we went in with a bit of confidence that we were at least heading in the right direction. But obviously tonight was a quality field and Mark and Nathan’s horse was unbeaten, so you don’t ever really think you are going to beat a horse like High Energy. We can’t believe it and we are absolutely stoked,” he said.

Walkinonsunshine was bred by Bagrie’s parents Peter and Anne in conjunction with the filly’s co-owner, Reg Storer. The trio had some great success together racing the dam, Blackjacky, who was a rarity being a trotting mare by Falcon Seelster.

Peter Bagrie trained the now 16-year-old mare to seven wins in her career, six of those coming in the trotting gait after making the switch to square gaiting after 13 starts as a pacer.

In her early stud career to date, she has left just the four live foals, the first to the races being the second foal by Terror To Love in Hittheroadjack who won two and placed in seven for the Hope’s before being sold to Australia where he has won a further eight races.

After missing in consecutive years to A Rocknroll Dance and American Ideal, she was then tried with Creatine with the resulting foal producing tonight’s Oak’s winner.

“She was always a natural trotter Blackjacky, when we would try and get her to canter at home, she would trot like a demon so after she had reached her mark pacing, we thought we would try her in the trotting gait. As she got more experience, she seemed to develop more confidence and finish off her races better. Even now as a broodmare she trots round when the others are cantering.

“It was Reg Storer’s idea, so all the credit has to go to him. It was a very good call in the end and since she was broken in and shown us plenty of promise, Reg has gone back to Creatine this year and she is going to have a full brother or sister in the coming season,” he said.

With Walkinonsunshine not paid up for the Sires Stakes 3YO Trotters Final, the question remained whether tonight’s performance would give connections the confidence to have a shot at the Great Northern Trotting Derby given this crop of fillies have shown themselves to be competitive with the best of the colts thus far.

Given Bagrie isn’t just the trainer but a co-owner along with Reg Storer and his daughter Bella, he was in a great position to answer shortly after the resounding result.

“We were going to let tonight be the measuring stick for the Derby and she has sort of proved herself worthy, so we are going to hang round and have a go, because as you saw tonight you have to roll the dice to be a chance,” he said.

For complete Alexandra Park race fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink