BLAST FROM THE PAST
2005 NZ YEARLING SALES SERIES OPEN - Won by The Reckoning
 Lew Driver is very much his own man. He trains on the edge of convention. But his methods work, as The Reckoning showed when winning the $200,000 Sales Series Pace at Addington last Friday night.
The Reckoning was the busiest horse in the race. He had raced 12 times this season, being once to Auckland and three times to Invercargill. He never missed a float ride. "He's only had three straight days off since February last year," said Driver, who settled in West Melton from the North Island in February, 2003. Driver moved south as an extremely successful businessman and trainer who had done splendidly with "other people's cast-offs. I had won all the cups in the north - Hawera, Northland, Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Rotorua - except the Auckland Cup and I had been second in that, and Gaelic Skipper was runner-up in the Inter-Dominion Grand Final. My horses had won over a million, and one season I trained thirty-three winners".
That was before he became heavily involved in the hotel industry. "It wasn't until I came south, and with only a half interest in a hotel, that I decided to spend some real money," he said. For $84,000, he bought Presido at the Ready To Run Sale, claimed Chief to give him a racehorse, and chose 10 yearlings at the PGG Sales. The Reckoning, a son of Presidential Ball, was one of them, and he cost $20,000.
Along with his stablemates Gretamaro, Fleet Magic and Gaelic Annie, The Reckoning was ready and waiting for the juvenile racing to begin, and he was fully educated and conditioned with trial racing when it came. He ran second at his first three starts, to Live To Reign (twice) and The Adman before winning a race at Ascot Park at his sixth start.
Although well pleased with his lead-up form, Driver lost what confidence he had when he saw The Reckoning starting from the outside of the second line. "I had seen how it affected Presido when he drew badly in both Derbies, and I went along for the night a bit scruffy. I just didn't expect to be there. I saw him at the winning post, and then I lost him down the back, though I knew he was in the middle of them somewhere. It was a real thrill to win it, because it is the first big stake I have relly won - $107,000 is quiet a lot.
Driver does not train pretty. "I do what every trainer does, feed them three times a day, but they don't have to work much at home if they're racing or going to the trials. I feed them NRM Race13, and they have jumped out of the ground since they have been on that. They don't get boxed, and there are no shelters - just double rugged in a paddock - a bit like the Aussie galloper, Vo Rogue. And the only time they get washed down is after a race or a workout. They get towelled down, their legs get iced and I rub Staysound into them every day. It is very cooling and tightens them up. They are just my own thoughts and how I do it," he said.
Presido is having a working holiday with Mark Smolenski - who Driver says brought him into the "modern world" with feeding and other suggestions - and in due back in the stable next week. The plan is to take him to Australia for the Breeders' Crown, and The Reckoning will probably go too, after he races in the Juvenile Championship in Auckland.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 18May05
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