News

Hore-Lacy takes two-pronged attack at rich Caulfield spoils

7th Oct 2011

Sydney Morning Herald - Craig Young - Friday, 7 October 2011

TAKING on monumental racetrack assignments has never bothered Caulfield horseman Rick Hore-Lacy. Not the way for a man with 80 per cent of a law degree to dodge headline-makers Helmet, Smart Missile and Manawanui in a cracking Caulfield Guineas tomorrow.

No, the man with an arts degree and one ''in jumping fences and dodging whitecoats'', as his website points out, is tossing the aptly named Chase The Rainbow into tomorrow's group 1 fray.

''They are going to have to be strong at the end of the race to hold this fellow out and I'm not saying they won't be,'' Hore-Lacy said this week.

Hore-Lacy knows the heartache and ecstasy involved in trying to win one of the most prized races for three-year-olds on the Australian calendar. Known as a stallion-making event, Hore-Lacy won with Redoute's Choice in 1999 and the colt went on to be a king of the breeding barn.

While Redoute's Choice was special, Hore-Lacy can go back to last year's Caulfield Guineas when heartbreak struck. His Golden Rose-winning colt Toorak Toff finished fourth as favourite and the trainer sacked champion jockey Damien Oliver for what was deemed an unsatisfactory ride.

Toorak Toff is in action again tomorrow as the four-year-old lines up in the group 1 Toorak Handicap. Having staved off a stud career, Toorak Toff goes into the event a last-start winner of the group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes.

''We didn't really have a firm offer for him [Toorak Toff] to go to stud, it was too late in the season and all bets were off,'' Hore-Lacy said.

Toorak Toff had developed a wind problem and his racing career was on the line. Surgery was needed.

''It might even improve them,'' Hore-Lacy said with a chuckle. ''How about So You Think?''

A wind operation certainly hasn't stopped the dual Cox Plate winner So You Think from collecting group 1s in Europe, although last Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe was beyond the entire.

''I cantered him [Toorak Toff] around a couple of times and noticed there was no noise, so we decided to bring him back into full work,'' Hore-Lacy said. ''He won another group 1 the other day, he is going super. He has a good weight in 58 kilograms on Saturday, he has won two group 1s and I'm not going crook. He has not a bad gate [5], he should get over just behind the leaders and have every chance.

''He has had an injury-free, uninterrupted preparation and is right back to his best.''

For Hore-Lacy, the ''fence jumping'' took place while studying law at Melbourne University. No use cutting into the betting bank by paying to enter a racecourse.

In 1976, Hore-Lacy parlayed the small bank into a $144,700 quadrella result. What do you think Hore-Lacy did? Dropped out of uni, headed to New Zealand and spent the lot on 11 yearlings.

He then took out a trainer's licence. Sure, Hore-Lacy has stared financial meltdown in the face a couple of times but not for him to walk away. Not when the next good horse is out there to be found.

One like Chase The Rainbow, which he secured for $90,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in Melbourne. Chase The Rainbow is by Hore-Lacy's former racetrack underdog Dash For Cash.

''A really nice colt, the best Dash For Cash I'd seen,'' Hore-Lacy said. ''Big and strong, nicely made, no conformation faults. Dash For Cash was a good horse, this one hasn't done it but hopefully he is even better.''

The prospects of taking on Sydney's dominant three-year-olds is not of concern for Hore-Lacy. Not when you've got a willing partner like Chase The Rainbow.

''He never leaves an oat,'' he said. ''He is the biggest eater in the stable and it means he is an easy horse to train. He won at Moonee Valley last Friday night and was home at midnight, by 4am he'd licked the feed bin out. You'd love them all to do that.''

Hore-Lacy's first win as a trainer arrived at Yarra Glen in 1978 when Toss was backed from 33-1 into 7-2. It won by 12 lengths. Hore-Lacy made a mark as a jumps trainer as well, and, for good measure, won the 1990 Golden Slipper with Canny Lad.

Chase The Rainbow is one of eight runners in the Caulfield Guineas and while Manawanui and Smart Missile have been preparing away from the track, Hore-Lacy has eyes for only one horse.

''I just do my own thing, from the verandah, that's where I train from,'' Hore-Lacy said referring to his stables that sit alongside the course proper's run up to the top hill at Caulfield. ''All the best colts are in it and it looks like the top four will run in the placings. All look to be very smart.''

Rick Hore-Lacy could have been talking about himself.