Taranaki representative Tobias (NZ) (Complacent), carrying the black and gold hoops of the Taranaki province, proved too tough in a slogging finish to the ITM New Plymouth Interprovincial (1600m) on Saturday.
Apprentice rider Ellie Sole made good use of her 4kg claim to reduce the seven-year-old’s weight from 61kgs to a more manageable 57kg impost as she sat in third before sending him to the lead at the 600m.
With Sole riding hard, the Tony Dravitzki-prepared runner refused to yield as he held out the challenges of Ghazzah (Akeed Mofeed), race favourite Who Knows (NZ) (Redwood) and Drop Of Something (NZ) (Telperion) over the final 200m, taking the event by more than a length and adding a fourth consecutive victory to his career record.
An emotional Dravitzki was struggling to come to terms with what the lightly raced son of Complacent had achieved in his recent starts.
“That was unbelievable really as I’d never won two races in a row and now this guy has won four,” he said.
“He’s been a very tough horse and one of the toughest you could get to break in, but he has grown into himself this year and taken us on an unbelievable trip.
“Some people were saying it was 49 days since his last run, but I went on holiday for two weeks and so did he. I wasn’t concerned about that, but it was just the weight.
“Ellie has now won three from three on him and I just told her to be positive and go forward. They seem to be winning on the rail so she switched to there in the straight and got the chocolates.
“Not in my wildest dreams I could have imagined this.”
Dravitzki co-bred the gelding with his brother John and brother-in-law Ian McCaul and they race the gelding with friend Noel George.
From the Zabeel mare Zabolta, Tobias is closely related to the dual Group One winner Bazelle (NZ) (Zabeel) and has now won seven races from 25 starts and more than $156,000 in prizemoney for his connections.
