Hall’s faith restored with Manawatu win

[Chief Stipe]

Tim Hall found himself getting rather frustrated with his maiden mare Sarabi, but a win at Manawatu on Wednesday has restored his faith somewhat.

The Gotta Go Cullect mare, previously unplaced in 18 career starts, caused an upset at better than $25 when driven by Alicia Harrison.

For Hall, it was a step in the right direction.

“I thought she would have won a couple by now but she’s been a bit disappointing, really.

“She’s shown me a bit at times but has never really produced it on race day.”

Her mother, Miss Abigail, was good enough to win eight races, but has been an overwhelming disappointment at stud, leaving three winners of just nines races from seven foals.

And seven of those wins came from Kilkeel Lady, who had 150 career starts.

“She’s been very disappointing as a broodmare, but I think having seven fillies hasn’t helped.

“Kilkeel Lady was the best but the rest have been pretty average.”

A commitment to their breed by Tauranga’s Alan and Diane Greaves, no doubt at significant financial loss, was commendable, Hall reckoned.

“Not many would want to persevere as they have.

“If everyone had their dedication to their breed, the industry would be a lot different.

“They’ve been with us since day 1 as owners and they really are amazing people to train for.”

Hall, who did the early training of millionaire trotter Keystone Del, has only a small team in work at Cambridge now.

“We don’t do as many as we used to; there are seven in work at the moment but ideally that would be four or five at most.

“I shoe most of the time now and I’m not really focused on training a big team of horses.”

Among them is Keystone Del’s three-year-old Andover Hall half-brother, Keystone Comet.

“He’ll trial again shortly and then qualify.

“He’s had three learners’ workouts and went well, but picked up a slight injury.

“Nothing major but enough to have to put him aside to be careful.”

Sarabi heads around again tonight, on the second leg of the two-day Manawatu meeting, and she’s come up with the plum inside draw.

“I’ll be interested to see how she goes tonight; she’ll have to improve to be competitive up in grade but in saying that she was so lowly rated that she’s still on a good mark.

“There’s another Manawatu meeting coming up for her, and Hawera, so hopefully she can continue to race well at them.”

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