Sarah Palin now imparting her manners to her foals

Sarah Palin's first foal Lipstick has always been a real ‘chip off the block’ and she made a flying start to her career at Addington last Sunday.

The four-year-old Majestic Son mare only qualified a month ago and her debut was only her third run ‘off the place’ outside of a workout almost a year ago.

All of which was a “very pleasant surprise” for Margo Nyhan and Peter Davis.

Lipstick might prove about as good as Sarah Palin in some respects, perhaps even better, but she will never achieve the same sort of cult status.

That came from compiling a truly remarkable record at the time of 184 starts for 10 wins, 30 seconds, 20 thirds and 38 fourths for stakes worth $122,000 during almost seven years of racing.

Or she paid a dividend every third race in all that time and there were an awful lot of cheques in the mail.

Several horses have since raced on many more occasions under the current handicapping system which acts like a ladder to move up and down.

The remarkable now 14-year-old Take After Me is set to have start No.405 at Addington this week and he’s so far had 21 wins, 42 seconds and 52 thirds for stakes of $303,000.

Alexy once set the record at 347 races (11-17-28, $124,000) and then there was stablemate Four Starrzzz Shiraz with 283 (20-26-26, $192,000).

But these were geldings and Sarah Palin was a well-bred mare with a high profile name who earned the admiration of many, or she had a huge social media following.

“She had limited ability but she always did everything right,” said Davis.

“She stepped and ran or she always put herself in the race – she was pretty much the perfect racehorse.
“I think people recognised her as a really honest battler and they loved her for it.

“She was even the subject of a Seven Sharp piece when she had her last race when racing returned to the Waimate track (in March, 2018).”

Under the rigid old handicapping system, Sarah Palin would have ‘hit the wall’ at c3, so how did she keep going for so long?

The current handicapping system came in a year before Sarah Palin retired.

She had seven wins under the previous system where outside of a maiden at Westport and a c2 front on the grass at Oamaru, they were all c1 races with just two being penalty-free.

She was initially assessed as an R41 and had three more wins to reach a career high of R58 at one point.

“In her day the handicapping system dropped horses back a class if they had no wins in 10 races.
“These days if you’re often placed, you remain in about the same grade.

“But back then you could have 10 consecutive seconds and you would still drop back a class (c2 to c1).

“Sarah Palin was just perfect for it because she almost always ran a place.

“I think she must have raced through three different handicapping systems actually.”

Sarah Palin was raced by Nyhan along with the Griffins Syndicate and they were always going to get first dibs on her foals.

They’re racing Lipstick along with Aaron Skerrett and his partner Rob Colligan.

Skerrett was in Griffins when Sarah Palin was racing and was her “No.1 fan”.

He has since pulled out of the syndicate but came back in on Lipstick.

After two missed seasons to Bacardi Lindy, who has crossed with the family to produce Dark Horse and Hidden Talent, Sarah Palin has produced four straight foals by Majestic Son and is back in foal to him.

The second foal in Albertene qualified a few weeks ago when she led all the way to win a heat at Ashburton in her first run off the place.

But she then gave Davis a rather hairy drive in a trial at Rangiora where she galloped away and bolted for over 200m, recovering to lead before galloping again at the 400m.

“We first put her in a workout, but they canned that and transferred to a qualifying trial, so it was very pleasing when she did everything just perfect that day.
“But then at Rangiora, she got off on the wrong foot and panicked, and she’s also had issues getting around the bends.

“I think she’s going through a growth spurt, so we’ve tipped her out.

Albertene and Lipstick both have Sarah Palin’s great manners though. In fact Lipstick has always been a dead ringer for Sarah Palin.”

The third foal in Dolly Bird is now with Graeme Telfer after starting out with Nyhan and Davis.

“We had her for a couple of preps and quite liked her, but there was some confusion early on (with Bevan Grice) and she was promised to Graeme.
“She wasn’t going to be as precocious as the first two and as we had plenty around us, we were happy to let Graeme give her a go.”

Sarah Palin has also produced a weanling colt and Davis is looking forward to getting that one though.

For much of the past year or so, Davis thought Albertene was going to be a lot better than Lipstick.

“It always seemed like the younger one was working the better, but it can be hard to gauge. Sometimes you get one that works pretty average, then goes a lot better off the place, and vice-versa.

We were pleasantly surprised by how well Lipstick went at Addington considering it was only her fourth run off the place.

I know she probably didn’t beat much, but it was still a good effort to win a race at Addington so quickly.”

Origin is going to win a race pretty quickly after three consecutive seconds in recent weeks.

And when she does, it will be a ‘very long time between drinks’ for breeder-owner Gael Murray.

Murray hasn’t even raced a horse herself since Enchant, a daughter of Earl who won a race at Cromwell in 2008.

Murray had wanted to keep Enchant for breeding as she was a half-sister to a good horse in Running On Time, but it was his subsequent unraced sister Successor who proved a much better broodmare.

Five of her first six foals have been winners including Heavyweight Hero, Fighting Fire and Fight For Freedom.

The latter looked very good winning his three-year-old debut for Bob Butt and then went to Auckland for the Sales race, but he blew the start and subsequently went right off the rails.

After Heavyweight Hero was beaten a head in a 2YO Ruby at Cambridge and later won a Group 1 – the NZ Trotting FFA on Cup Day – Murray waited several years to get a filly and future broodmare from Successor.

Now she has three of them, with Origin being a sister to Heavyweight Hero, while there’s a two-year-old by Propulsion which is “bowling up quite nice” for Nyhan, and a weanling by Habibi Inta.

A yearling colt by Propulsion was bought by Coaster Howe for $24,000 at the sales.

“I’ve always been a seller of course, but when I was never going to be able to buy a sister to a Group 1 winner, I was never going to sell one I’d bred,” said Murray.

“Peter actually picked up the Habibi Inta this week to be a paddock mate for one of theirs (from Madeleine Stowe).

I’m helping them out in the mornings these days and it’s good being involved when you have your own horses around and in work.”

Murray was well known for getting mares in foal, but that was on leased land and she had to forego that when the lease expired and she couldn’t find anywhere else.

She still does several yearlings each year and she still has plenty of frozen semen in hand for Propulsion, a brilliantly-bred and performed son of Muscle Hill.

“I left Successor empty last season but she looks so well, we’ll have to go again next season.”

Much like Sarah Palin, Origin’s forte is her manners and she’s only once been out of the money in five starts this time in.

That was when she wound up three-fence and ran on for fifth in a quality 2600m maiden at Addington.

“She’s gone five weeks in a row now so she’s having this week off ahead of a 2000m stand next week,” said Davis. “That will be her go.”

What won’t be is racing as long as Sarah Palin, as Murray will be keen to get that elusive win on the board and then bundle her off to the broodmare paddock.