Special victory for family mare at Waverley
Consistent galloper Great Escape (NZ) (Iffraaj) was a popular winner at Waverley on Saturday.
The five-year-old daughter of Iffraaj is co-owned by William and Rosie Fell’s Goodwood Stud and Rosie’s sister Kelly Myers was entrusted with riding the mare in the Ultrascan – Mike O’Keefe (1200m), hoping to go one better after finishing a narrow second two starts back at Otaki.
Great Escape had scarcely been out of the placings in her 10 starts and started favourite in the sprint contest, where she jumped well and settled in the first half of the field.
Travelling strongly into the home turn, Myers angled off the rail to the centre of the track and Great Escape hit the lead at the 150m, drawing clear from her stablemate Our Akashinga to score by 1 ¾ lengths, giving trainers Kevin and Stephen Gray the quinella.
Palmerston North-based Fell was on course to celebrate the victory and felt a sense of relief after the mare narrowly missed in two tight finishes this campaign.
“I was so happy, my reaction after the race was probably more so relieved as well,” she said. “I am just stoked.
“I haven’t spoken to Stephen since the race, but they live just around the corner, so I’ll pop out there and have a chat about what’s going to happen next in the next few days.”
Having co-bred Great Escape, Fell initially placed her with Awapuni trainer Roydon Bergerson, who prepared her to win her maiden and finish sixth in the Gr.3 O’Leary’s Fillies Stakes (1200m).
The mare was subsequently off the scene for over a year due to injury, and after pre-training her, Fell decided to try her hand at the training role and prepare the mare herself.
A familiar face in the New Zealand racing scene, Fell (nee Myers) won well over 600 races and five Group Ones as a jockey, riding at the highest level for a number of years before retiring following a serious accident at the trials over five years ago.
Fell came close to adding her first win as a trainer with Great Escape, recording two seconds and a third from as many starts before she joined the Gray stable.
“Roydon Bergerson initially trained her, then she had a back injury,” Fell said. “I was pre-training her ready to go back into his stable, then I thought I could train her myself, so I got my license and trained her.
“I got pregnant and thought I couldn’t really have a baby and train her, and because I was using Stephen’s track, he was the obvious to take over from that point.
“I did try and ride her a few weeks ago which was silly, but if I do go out there, I would just ride the pony or something like that.”
Out of a half-sister to multiple Group One winner and Goodwood graduate Gingernuts, Great Escape is raced by a group of Fell’s friends and family.
