Pub buy chasing sentimental victory
A horse bought over a drink will be the toast of Wellington if he can open his jumping account in Saturday’s K. S. Browne Hurdle (3200m).
Notabadrooster will deliver a fitting outcome for part-owner and trainer Christopher Faulkner, who has the fondest of memories of the venue.
“I got married at Trentham so it would be a royal result,” he said.
“I bought this horse in the pub off a bloke crying into his beer.”
Notabadrooster has also had to overcome more than his fair share of adversity to continue his career.
“After he won his first three races he did a tendon and that came right and then he had to have bone chips taken out,” Faulkner said.
The seven-year-old will be making the fourth appearance of his current campaign on Saturday and heads south off the back of a last-start third in the Waikato Hurdles (3200m).
“The track was too good for him at Te Rapa so he went alright,” Faulkner said.
“All going well, he’ll probably run in the Wellington Hurdles and then the National.”
Notabadrooster is the only horse he is preparing himself.
“I’m a drainage contractor so the rooster has to fit in around the jobs,” Faulkner said. “I’ve got two others with Ken Duncan, one with Wayne Hillis and three with Craig Phelan.
“I was apprenticed to Baggy Hillis and rode over fences and later on I trained in partnership with Cliff Fenwick when he had Lord Reims.”
Lord Reims was an outstanding stayer of the mid-1980s and won the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) and three successive editions of the Adelaide Cup (3200m).