Sampson blows St Leger rivals away

[Chief Stipe]

Nine-year-old Sampson blew his younger rivals off the track in today’s Listed Yealands Family Wines New Zealand St Leger at Trentham, winning by eight and a quarter lengths under a firm hold from Johnathan Parkes.

Restricted to three and four-year-olds until last season, the autumn staying feature was opened up to all ages this year and run under set weights and penalties conditions.

That could not have been more perfect for Sampson, whose rating of 93 was almost 20 points ahead of his nearest rival but he carried only 55.5 kilograms. It allowed him to return to Trentham today for some form of consolation, having been scratched on the morning of the Wellington Cup in January due to a stone bruise.

“He was just too good today,” Parkes said. “It’s a shame he missed out on the Wellington Cup, but who knows? Maybe he’ll be back for it next year.”

Awkwardly positioned amongst horses in the back half of the field through the early stages, Parkes decided to slide forward on Sampson when the pace slackened in the back straight.

It was a one-horse race from there as Parkes took several looks over his shoulder approaching the home turn, then let Sampson rip at the top of the straight.

The old warrior roared clear, leaving his rivals in a different post code as the Trentham crowd broke into applause through the last 150 metres.

“I wasn’t happy with the pace down the back of the straight, so I decided to just let him roll forward and he dominated the race from there,” Parkes said. “I had to keep looking back to see how far I was in front by.”

Bought for just $20,000 as a yearling at Karaka, Sampson has now had 64 starts for 11 wins, 13 placings and more than $437,000 in prize-money. This was his fourth stakes win, having previously taken out the Gr. 3 Trentham Stakes and Gr. 2 Awapuni Gold Cup in 2017, along with this year’s Listed Marton Cup. He has placed in two Wellington Cups.

He is trained by Howie Mathews, whose wife Lorraine shares ownership with good friend Janice Street.

“It’s amazing,” Howie Mathews said. “He was in all sorts of trouble early and I was thinking, ‘What’s Parkesy doing?’ We wanted to go forward.

“But he had a handful of horse and let him stride along down the back straight. He’s a good one-pacer and he showed that today.

“We’re gobsmacked. We haven’t really had a winner as easy as that before. He’s a horse who’s close to our heart. He’s fantastic. He’s an everyday mate, he’s always there.”

Lorraine Mathews, who rides Sampson in trackwork, had a feeling he was ready to run a big race.

“He’d been feeling really well – he was being a bit of a bugger actually,” she said. “So I did expect him to go well, but that was absolutely wonderful. He blew me away.”

Lucetta finished second, with Soleseifei in third position.

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