News

Trainer knocks back $1 million offer for Manawanui - and wins it back the very next day

12th Sep 2011

Daily Telegraph - Ray Thomas - Sunday, 11 September 2011

IMAGINE getting a phone call 24 hours before a big race with an offer to buy your horse for $1 million - and then knocking it back.

That was the predicament Manawanui's trainer Ron Leemon found himself in on the eve of the Tooheys New Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill yesterday.

But after nearly 35 years as a licensed trainer, battling just to make ends meet, Leemon wasn't about to pass up his chance to finally win a Group 1 race.

And after one of the most exciting and enthralling races in Sydney in years, a proud Leemon, 64, was vindicated when Manawanui led all the way to beat Smart Missile.

"I've had a lot of offers for this horse, they were even ringing me yesterday trying to buy Manawanui for $1 million," Leemon said.

"But I race this horse with my wife, Gaye, and a group of new owners. At this stage of my life, we are chasing the dream with a horse like Manawanui; now we are living the dream!

"You can't put a price on something like this."

Manawanui ($6) virtually led throughout to win by a short neck from Smart Missile ($2.10 favourite), who hung out badly under pressure in the final 200m.

Kerrin McEvoy, rider of Helmet ($3.20), lodged a successful protest against Foxwedge's rider James McDonald for interference on the home turn and was elevated to third.

The Golden Rose was turned upside down when Helmet blew the start, coming out a length behind the field. Smart Missile was trapped three wide so jockey Glen Boss elected to ease back to last.

Despite the small field, punters didn't know where to look. Manawanui and Aeronautical shared the lead early, while the favourites Smart Missile and Helmet were out the back in a bumping duel.

Internationally acclaimed jockey Glyn Schofield, rider of Manawanui, then seized the moment by sending the gelding to the front.

"I reckon when we got to the front and my bloke relaxed, the race was as good as over," Schofield said.

"Then coming into the straight, he gave a kick and I knew they weren't going to catch him.

"He actually thought the job was done halfway down the straight and was idling a bit and even though I could sense Smart Missile coming, the result was never in doubt.

"I've ridden some good horses all over the world but I've said for a long time now that Manawanui was potentially as good as any horse that I have ridden."

Schofield stood high in the irons and saluted well before the winning post but Leemon said he was "riding Manawanui right to the line".

Leemon bought Manawanui by chance, with a successful bid of $45,000 for the yearling at the Sydney Inglis Classic Sale last year.

"I had picked out another yearling in the draft but when I had a look at that horse, I didn't like him," he said. "Then I saw this other yearling walk out of his box about five doors up and he just had a presence about him.

"I decided that was the horse I wanted to buy. I didn't have the money and I nearly walked away a couple of times but in the end I thought it's only money and we got him for $45,000."

That yearling turned out to be Manawanui, which means bold and courageous in Maori.

Leemon had not had a Group 1 runner since True Dreams in the 1988 Railway Stakes but finally, after all those years of hard toil, the trainer has his first Group 1 winner.

He's not finished there either, with Manawanui set to contest the Group 2 Stan Fox Stakes at Rosehill in two weeks before the gelding's "grand final" in the $1 million Caulfield Guineas on October 8.