Easter Handicap To Time Keeper

Sunday, 18 April 2010 01:23

Co-trainer Graeme Nicholson sounded a warning to Australians after his prize three-year-old colt Time Keeper (3 B. C. Stravinsky – Organdy, by Our Emblem) took on and beat older horses in the $200,000 Group One Land Pride Easter Handicap (1600m) at Ellerslie on Saturday.

Nicholson, who trains in partnership with Paul Allbon at Te Aroha and owns Time Keeper with Francis Crimmins, said, “I know he’s a damn good horse, but how good is he?”

He became the first three-year-old to win the event since Status in 1990, with Eastern Joy, Silver Nymph, Silver Wraith and Tudor Light the only others of the same age to manage the feat.

“It’s going to take something hellishly good to beat him in Australia, I’ll tell you that. I’m blown away”, said a jubilant Nicholson.

It seems the training partnership that rose to prominence through the deeds of six-time group one winner Sir Slick, who finished third in the race under top weight of 59 kilograms compared to 51 kilos carried by his stable-mate, have unearthed another star.

Nicholson plans to travel both horses to Brisbane on May 1, with the main aim for Time Keeper being the A$500,000 Group One Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm on June 12.

He said he feared Time Keeper would not be able to take part in the race, let alone win it, when it was discovered he had pricked the hoof on his off foreleg a day before the race and was lame.

“He was bloody lame yesterday (Friday) afternoon, and when we put him on the truck today, Floyd (who straps the horse) said, ‘Mr Nick, he won’t be racing’, I said, ‘Floyd, there’s another four hours to go. We had to get the vet here to check him out first.”

After Time Keeper had won the group three Manawatu Classic (2000m) at Awapuni by six lengths, when leading by a similar margin through the mid stages, at his previous start, Nicholson admitted thinking, “Holy hell, how good is this horse?”

And it was those tactics again, with Mark Sweeney aboard for the first time, that saw Time Keeper work hard for the front, steady affairs while still travelling comfortably at high speed, then kick away to an unassailable lead.

It took another three-year-old, November Rain, to get closest to him, as the recent runner-up in the NZ Oaks narrowed the margin to one and a half lengths at the line.

While the performance by Sir Slick, winner of the Group Two Awapuni Gold Cup (2000m) last start, typified his courage and carried the winner of 22 races ever closer to $2 million in earnings.

Culminate and Run Like Al finished close up in fourth and fifth respectively.