Here comes the Sundons
You may recall earlier in the week I talked to Phil Williamson about the impact the late Sundon made on his training career.
Phil said Sundon as a sire had been a magnificent horse to him and I outlined some of the Sundon trotters who won 10 or more for Phil.
However, I thought I would delve a bit further, so went through Phil's record season by season, checking the breeding of all his winners and counting up the Sundons.
I counted. And I counted. And, after about 40 minutes of cross-referencing, I reached a quite remarkable total.
After asking a couple of racing types around the office what they thought Phil's total of Sundon winners would be out of 416 trotting winners, they were some way off with guesses of 60 and the low 100s.
The figure - believe it or not - is 199. Starting with just two Sundon winners in 2001-2002 - One Under Kenny and Kiwi Sun - Phil and his family have stacked on another 197 winners.
Their best Sundon season was in 2004-05 when 27 of their winners were by the great stallion.
Phil has also won 10 races in Australia with One Over Kenny (six), Springbank Richard (three) and Allegro Agitato (one).
Derby days are over
Well, OK, the Kentucky Derby isn't over by any stretch.
But there doesn't seem to be the same punch (excuse the pun which will become clear in about three sentences) about it this year.
We were looking through the news wires on Wednesday in a quest to find a couple of stories we could possibly put on Thursday's racing page.
There was just one we could find which - naturally enough - had a link to the Mayweather v Pacquiao fight.
Do you reckon those in charge at Churchill Downs cringed a little bit when they discovered that the two welterweight champs had settled on May 2 (American time) as the date for their showdown?
Still if you are mixing a mint julep at 10.30am on Sunday, just make sure you pace yourself through to the late afternoon.
Thought of the week
Do you reckon any of the smaller stables felt like channelling yachting commentator Martin Tasker when it was announced on Sunday that star Australian mare Frith is joining Mark Purdon's and Natalie Rasmussen's all-conquering All Stars Stable?
The quote I refer to, of course, is Tasker's exasperated cry of ''the rich getting richer'' as Oracle ate away Team New Zealand's lead in 2013.
Fact is, however, the All Stars Stable is producing mind-blowing results on the track so it stands to reason owners of good horses want their charges to be trained by the best.
Lazy Fiver
Passing Shot provided more of a gentle ponytail-pull than a knockout blow at Te Rapa last week, finishing third. Wait until the last race at Ashburton on Sunday and get on Princess Arts.
