Once they reach grade four or over it’s hard to get a start” “Once they reach a certain level it’s hard to race them. The main issue will now be the lack of staying races available to keep the Group winner race fit.
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Old stayers like Irma Bale, Destini Fireball, Proven Impala and Maddison Dee, they’re around 4 years old” Lucy Wires looks like she is going to be a top stayer but she had no luck there the other night. “The stayers that have dominated the last 18 months or so are just sort of reaching their age so I think there is a new crop of stayers coming up at the moment, hopefully mine is one of them. The adrenaline rush and everything is tiring”. It takes more out of me than the dog, I’m 65 years old and it’s very overwhelming, I just got over it today. “They rang up from Sydney last week because they have got a $25,000 race on there and I said I would see how he goes on Saturday but I’ve changed my mind. With many of the seasoned stayers now transitioning into retirement, Flores hopes that Amity Flame can step up to the challenge of being a high profile distance dynamo. On Saturday he was 10/1 but he nearly knocked the heat off at 42/1”.įlores is now looking to target the Group 1 Bold Trease with his exciting prospect after deciding against a trip to NSW for the Group 3 Sydney Cup. In the Victoria Cup he was 25/1 then he won the Lizrene and he was 45/1.
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The Victoria Cup was a listed race and the Lizrene was a listed race. “That’s the third cup he has actually won. Stayers don’t really come into it and reach their peak until they are about three years old or three and a half”. I think he is a bit underrated but he is only a young stayer- he is only two and a half. When he has got his mind on it he goes passed most good dogs. “Amity Flame won the Lizrene at Sandown a few months ago and he went passed Destini Fireball and Proven Impala. It looks like he can go on, I hope he can go on”
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“He has already won a couple of good races, he won the Victoria Cup at Cranbourne and that was only about his third start over the distance beating a really good field and he was only 22 months old then. The handy stayer had already put in some eye-catching performances earlier this year when he took out a couple of listed races against some elite company. So, I thought he could sort of hit the front in the final and it worked out the way I thought it was going to”Īmity Flame took his record to eight wins and ten minors after his display on Saturday night. “In the final I thought if he jumped alright then he would probably do well. I thought the final was easier than the heat. “He didn’t jump too badly and he sat about fifth and ran a really good second in quite a smart time” “When he came second in the heat and was only beaten a length I was shocked because it was such a strong field I thought I couldn’t even beat one home, that’s how strong it was”. While he was relatively unfancied by punters ($10.10), Flores was optimistic of his chance in the final after his promising heat performance where he finished one length behind Lucy Wires at big odds. In the first race the winner had a ten metre handicap and Amity Flame actually rang two lengths faster than that dog, so I was really happy”. “It was pretty exciting, he ran a very fast time as well. From that point in time he was never behind another runner as he stretched out to score by just over nine and a half lengths in a nippy 42.46s. It’s worked out really well”.įlores’ success with his exciting duo came to a climax on Saturday night when his emerging young stayer Amity Flame took out the Group 3 Topcat Video Cup at The Meadows.īeginning well from box two, the son of Paddy’s Flame and Amity Rose found the lead in the run to the line on the first occasion. I’m only a hobby trainer and they are not too many hobbies going around that you can win that sort of money from your backyard. “They only started racing 10 months ago and they’ve won about $120,000 between them.
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When I was ready to retire I thought I better do something for my retirement so I bought a couple of pups and I only paid $900 each for them when they were about three months old”, Flores recalled. “I’ve sort of come in and out of the dogs over a 45 year span and this time I’ve only just come back after about a ten year break. The young pups matured to become Amity Flame and Hurricane Isaac- two talented litter brothers that have been racing impressively around the Victorian city circuits. Little did he know that his $1800 investment would earn him over $120,000 just a few years down the track. Tony Flores purchased two black pups when they were three months old to give him something to do when he retired.