SAVEAPATROL RETIRED AFTER LATEST SETBACK
It was a bitter-sweet occasion for owner Grant Hatton the night he scored his first Group One win as a co-owner of NZ Trotting Championship winner, Eyre I Come.
The horse he thought may have been his first Group One winner in Saveapatrol was retired after going amiss again a couple of days out from the Addington premier meeting on April 7.
Brilliant pacer Saveapatrol in action at the Rangiora trials for driver Blair Orange in the spring of 2015.
Saveapatrol, good enough to beat triple New Zealand Cup winner Terror To Love, and another New Zealand Cup winner in Arden Rooney, in the Group Three 2014 Invercargill Cup, was plagued by soundness issues for much of his brief race career.
After his Invercargill Cup win, Saveapatrol chased home Terror To Love and top mare Adore Me in the 2014 Group One Auckland Cup, but that was sadly his third to last ever race start.
The big Christian Cullen-Rondel Franco then had a year off to try and fully extend his racing life.
He returned for two Auckland starts in June-July 2015, winning his last start in the Thames Cup, but a stone bruise then had him returning to Canterbury to freshen and prepare for the 2015 New Zealand Cup.
But only days out from a scheduled start in the Hannon Memorial, Saveapatrol was impressive winning at the Rangiora workouts only to go amiss with a high tendon tear.
He returned as a late seven-year-old for a workout and trial in this preparation but had a recurrence of the high tendon tear in early April.
“It was very frustrating,” Mark said.
“He could have been a very good open class star but the way he he was made was always against him.”
Saveapatrol retires after racing only 18 times, scoring 11 wins, a second and a third, for $145,618 in stakes.
Meanwhile, Mr Hatton has more from Saveapatrol’s family for the future.
Mark secured a close relative of Saveapatrol for Mr Hatton at the Australia Pacing Gold Melbourne sale on Sunday, February 5.
The Mach Three filly from Rigaleto Franco is eligible to return to Australia for the Australasian Breeders Crown, Vicbred and Vicbred Platinum series.
Her dam Rigaleto Franco is a successful producing half-sister by Live Or Die to Rondel Franco (1:51.6, US), the Falcon Seelster dam of Saveapatrol (1:56.9, 11 wins from 18 starts for $145,618), Rondels Rose (winner of one each in NZ & Australia), The Bus (1:59.8, 2YO qualifier, race-placed in four 2YO starts) and Runaround Rhonda, the latter now the race-placed Artsplace dam of (Now) I Get Around (1:59.8, three wins).