Three months ago Chase a Dream was chasing rainbows for co- owner Mark Purdon -just a little too often chasing shadows instead.
Three months can be a short time in racing. Now “Chase” is after the $A1.2m Nullarbor in Perth on April 17 the richest free for all event in Australian harness racing. He strengthened his chances there with a fine win on Hunter Cup night at Melton last Saturday.
And even more oddly he will be prepared by Jason Grimson, the man who not once but twice plucked New Zealand Cups from right under the noses of Purdon Racing’s Akuta and then Don’t Stop Dreaming.
So how does that all work ?
“It’s quite a long story” Mark says
“Back in the spring we were bringing him up for racing when we got an offer from America for him. We named our price which was quite high because we had paid a bit for him. I think if they came back with $50,000 less I would have been happy but they wouldn’t come at our price and didn’t want to make an offer”
Mark had purchased Chase a Dream in partnership with Chris Ryder, with whom he also races Oscar Bonavena, at a time when the original owners were looking to sell the horse who had stunned Addington with his Sires Stakes win in Cup week as a two year old with Olivia Thornley driving and then gone on to win the Harness Millions and Sires Stakes Final at three with Natalie in the cart.
“He had a few problems but I thought we might be able to solve them with some different methods of treatment” Mark said.
Chase a Dream ran some huge races for the partnership winning the Waikato Flying Mile and running second in the The Race to Leap To Fame for his new owners before reverting to his Wednesday child persona in the spring. Very very good on his day,slightly horrid when it wasn’t.
To be fair to the horse he had setbacks at vital times which often meant shorter leadups than planned to his major targets.
“He disappointed at the New Zealand Cup meeting and we left him with John and Jenna Dunn with a view to the summer Cup circuit. He had a couple of starts going only fairly and John thought his opportunities were limited in the near future so we took him back.”
Then another option popped up.
“We were offered a deal through Stu Valentine which meant racing in Australia under shared ownership. Jason was going to train him. I discussed it with Chris. He thought that it was too early in the season to judge where the American aged pacers were in standard and we might be better to retain full ownership until we assessed his prospects over there. That made sense so we declined that offer.”
Then Jason Grimson took a direct hand in events.
“He rang me and said he thought Chase was an ideal horse for the Nullabor and his stable had a slot he could use. He suggested we work out a deal that didn’t involve an ownership change and go from there. We agreed to do that”
Chase a Dream, in the hands of the maestro Cam Hart, capitalised on a trail at Melton last Saturday and won the closing event in convincing fashion. It wasn’t the Nullabor but it suggested with expected race fitness development he will be right up to his rivals.
Swayzee Downs Don’t Stop Dreaming in the NZ Cup -a year after doing the same to Akuta
The Nullabor is to be raced over 2560m at Gloucester Park as part of an inventive West Australia multi-code promotion. It is run alongside the Quokka for gallopers and the Sandgroper for greyhounds all slot racing events with high stakes and marketed as the first tri-code slot series in the world. The Nullabor was first run last year.
A top four placing tops the $A70,000 slot purchase fee and the minimum any runner can earn is $49,500
Mark says the secret of its appeal to the Grimson stable may be in its timing.
“It is run about a week after The Race at Cambridge so runners in that are unlikely to take on that sort of travel” Mark said
The Grimson stable star Swayzee and other top pacers will also be busy through March with features like the Miracle Mile mid- month and after his brilliant Hunter Cup finish Swayzee might have earned a freshener after that -or a trip to Cambridge. Those sort of decisions are yet to come.
If the whole plan came to fruition Mark may well rate it a good “one for two” deal -with Jason and Cam on his side this time making up for some of the two Cup Day disappointments for he and Nathan
Chase a Dream has shown many times what he is up with the best going around when it’s his day.
Mark, Chris and Jason only just hope April 17th is one of those