Gavin Lerena chats with Hollywood Racing’s racing manager Anthony Delpech in the parade ring before the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (Picture supplied)
One Stripe’s narrow defeat in the Gr 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational has been the talk of the South African racing fraternity since they watched him producing a flying finish and failing by a neck to fetch his Graham Motion-trained stablemate Test Score in the US$1 million race over a mile and a furlong at Gulfstream Park on Saturday.
Gavin Lerena gave a fascinating insight into the ride and into just about every aspect of his trip.
He said, “The whole race he travelled like a winner for me. He changed legs whenever I needed him to change legs. He always felt like he was in a winning rhythm for me. And then when we hit the first bend after the back stretch, in other words at the beginning of the last turn, he dropped the bit completely on me. The one guy on my outside had me pretty tight and One Stripe dropped the bit completely. It actually felt like I had no horse under me and we were going to run absolutely nowhere, but I just had to wait for him and wait for him and then halfway around the turn, when I started to work on him I could feel he was starting to grow under me again. However, at the top of the stretch, I had got him back on his outside leg and then the pace actually shifted outwards. It was from the horse that led with Mike Smith, which was shifting outwards, and it was a bit of a chain reaction. He got a little bit of a fright from that, or should I say he had a good look at it, because it was like bumper cars, like they were coming after him. He hesitated for a stride, but when he balanced up, the way he kicked on was phenomenal. At the 100m mark I honestly thought I was going to get the winner. But Test Score then gave that little bit extra. Everytime in the last 100m I said ‘Ok, I’ve got him’ he gave that little bit extra. Test Score is a very good horse.”
Gavin is not sure why an experienced horse like One Stripe, who had also seen the course before, would have been slightly spooked by that outward movement from the others at the top of the straight and he said, “You never really know, it could have been from what happened to him that time in the Sale race (The Big Cap where he was nearly stuck over the rail), but it could be anything.”
Gavin also mentioned part of One Stripe’s running style was to give himself a little breather before giving it his all in the straight.
He explained, “It is almost like he knows he is now going to give it all and he gives himself a little breather first. He switches off under you and then you have to just balance him up and then go for him. It is not ideal for a track with a short straight, but that is his running style.”
One of the highlights of the trip for Gavin was just being reunited with the former Vaughan Marshall-trained Drakenstein Stud-bred One World colt, on whom he had won four times from six starts in South Africa, including the prestigious Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas and the Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate.
He said there was no doubt One Stripe was as pleased to see Gavin as Gavin was to see him. It was like the reunion of old friends.
Gavin said, “When I first started riding him I used to whistle to him to try and get him to relax. But he never really settled down. But then one day I picked up that his groom used to hum songs to him while he was grooming him. So I started doing that. Whenever I was on him I would hum and it was always to the tune of “Amazing Grace”. So on getting to his yard in the USA I went into his box and started humming ‘Amazing Grace’ and he looked up straight away.”
Gavin flew out on the Monday before the big race, so had plenty of time to do his homework.
He got to know the form and running styles of all of the opposition horses, and how fast each of them jumped, by watching at least three replays of every one of them.
He was not allowed to walk the course on the day of the race, so walked it on the Friday.
He usually walks a course alone, so said it was good to be able to do it together with Anthony Delpech as they were able to both give their thoughts.
He noticed the track cambers the whole way round and is always higher on the right hand side and cambers down to the inside rail.
He said, “They had had quite a bit of rain on the Thursday and when walking the track it was quite soft down the inside and it was slightly firmer towards the middle outside. I always had it in mind that I wanted to come down the middle.”
Gavin said, “Officially the track was firm on the day, but it was actually quite soft underneath, there was a lot of moisture under the surface. I think it’s probably the first time he’s run in conditions like that and he ran well, so he must have enjoyed it.”
Gavin watched all of the turf races on the day and otherwise spent a lot of time on the Equisizer.
He said, “The Equisizer had TV screens near it, so I was actually able to ‘ride a race’ on it while watching the live race!”
There was quite a big gathering in the parade ring for One Stripe.
Rikesh Sewgoolam was away in Australia, but Owen and Devin Heffer of Hollywood Racing were there together with the Kieswetters of Ridgemont Stud and Ridgemont’s stud manager Craig Carey and Anthony Delpech was obviously there too.
Gavin decribed the atmosphere as surreal and added, “It was truly amazing. It was surreal, but in the sense that we belonged there, One Stripe deserved his place there.”
He continued, “Honestly, I was very tuned in, I was very much ‘in the zone’. It was my first time around the track, but I was so tuned in that it felt like the race took five minutes, everything was just slow motion, I was really in a good space. If you’re not in the zone and it’s your first time at a track then it’s pretty much a blur. But I was so tuned in that the race honestly felt like it was five minutes long. It was like I was in a slow motion dream. It was lovely.”
The race did not pan out exactly as he would have liked.
He said, “My first plan was to get ahead of the number three horse. I did ask David Egan about three or four times throughout the day and he was adamant he was going to push forward, but I still wanted to get ahead of him.”
One Stripe pinged the gates to give Gavin a chance of fulfilling the first plan, but he quickly changed to Plan B.
He said, “It would have been a fight to get ahead of him and it’s always in the back of your mind, you don’t want him to over race, so I had to take the second option and have him relax instead of maybe lighting him up.”
He had to switch to a second plan later on to.
He said, “I was coming into the straight as tight as I could. It’s all split seconds, but I could see there was going to be no run going down the middle, or two or three out, and I did have to sweep around them. It just made it a little bit more difficult that once we were in the straight, those horses made that outward shift and he had a good look at it before he went.”
Once he was someway towards the outside Gavin did recognise that his one advantage was the track camber as he had One Stripe charging home on his outside foot at a horse that was at the bottom of the camber, so to speak.
Gavin thinks the favourite to be One Stripe’s next race will likely be the US$6 million Dubai Turf, which is over the exact same distance as the Pegasus World Cup Turf, one mile and one furlong.
He said, “It’s still all up in the air. We’ve got to see how he’s taken his run. Graham says he has taken the run well, but we’ve got to see how he goes over the next couple of weeks.”
There will be options in the USA for One Stripe if he avoids Dubai, but Gavin reckoned they would be races over 1800m to 2000m.
