Heir Apparent To Bronzed Beauty

The Sunday Age

Sunday September 7, 2008

Stephen Howell

Weekend Hussler's brilliant win was put in context with the unveiling of a statue, writes Stephen Howell.

LET'S put the superlatives in context here - however great Weekend Hussler showed he is with his dominant win in the Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington, there was a better horse at the track yesterday.

Not in the flesh, but larger than life - Makybe Diva, the triple Melbourne Cup winner for whom the Hussler's race was named, was on the lawn near the 300-metre mark, a bronzed beauty, who, when unveiled, was staring towards the post she usually passed first.

And the Diva, too, would have found one ranked higher because the great Phar Lap, the 1930 Cup winner and Australian racing's icon, is immortalised in a similar manner just outside the main gate.

So, you can say that Weekend Hussler turned in a stunning performance as he continues to shape as the turf's next champion. He remains, however, as far-off statue status as his trainer Ross McDonald does from Cups king Bart Cummings, who walked past his sculpted form that stands only 50 metres from Makybe Diva on the way in to see his filly Mimi Lebrock win the Let's Elope Stakes.

The Hussler did more than square the ledger with Light Fantastic, considered the challenger to the throne this season after winning round one of their match at Caulfield last month. But the grey was anything but gallant in struggling into fourth place behind the Hussler ($1.85 favourite), Zarita and Littorio.

The win was so emphatic that McDonald and his wife Margaret, caught up in a celebratory embrace, did not even bother watching the last 150 metres. Unlike last week, when Margaret succumbed to the pressure that built from the loss to Light Fantastic two weeks before that and cried all the way to the line, there were no tears.

There should have been because she was in pain. Serious pain.

"He broke my toe," she said of her horse. "Just then, over there," she added, pointing to the raceday stalls where the horse was saddled less than 30 minutes earlier, and to her right foot. "It's broken, I know it's broken." But you are feeling no pain, Margaret?

"Oh, it's very painful." Rueful laughter accompanied the comment.

The Hussler has that touch of mongrel that often goes with winners, and his stomping hit its mark when he could not bite.

The McDonalds have been nipped black and blue, so they muzzle their horse when he is saddled. When you can't bite the hand that feeds you a stomp is as good as a chomp.

"No tears today," Margaret said minutes earlier as jockey Brad Rawiller brought the horse of the year back to scale to loud applause. "Now everyone knows he is the best."

Asked to rate the win, Ross McDonald, known to talk the horse up, simply said "good". "No, the best," said Margaret, and he agreed, saying the race went to plan and, "As soon as he went to go quicker, he just dropped Light Fantastic off."

"Just like a working gallop," said track rider Les Beer to excited owners. Beer, who does not talk to the media, declined when asked for a comment. A quick change of mind brought a succinct, "You've just seen a freak."

Weekend Hussler travels well in races, but not always to the races as he can kick out. Ross McDonald has got around the problem by converting his seven-horse, side-entry float to a single-berth front-loader when the stable star is on the road - the least you can do for the winner of six group 1s and $2.84 million.

For further insurance, McDonald stood in the back of the float for the 30-minute-plus trip from Caulfield yesterday. No bother at all to the trainer, who said: "I've flown horses in planes to Jakarta and all around the place."

He planned to have one drink in the winners' bar before going home with the Hussler and looking to his next start, the 1800-metre Underwood Stakes at Caulfield in a fortnight.

If Light Fantastic's trainer Mick Price had a post-race drink it wouldn't have been enjoyed. He said of Weekend Hussler's win, "Outstanding."

"I would have been pleased to have run second to it, though . . . when they run that bad for what your expectations are, there's a bit of head scratching to do."

Rawiller returned with whip arm up and his index finger signalling No. 1. "Today was the most relaxed I was ever at the races," he said. "It was just never in doubt from the moment we jumped."

He has not been bitten or stood on by his dream horse, but he has "been pinching myself since the Caulfield Guineas", Weekend Hussler's first group 1 win almost a year ago.

How did Rawiller rate the win? "The George Ryder was the best," he said of a group 1 win in Sydney in the autumn.

"Today's is not far off it, absolute classic Hussler at his best."

Worthy of a statue?

"He's got to do it three years running," the rider said.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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