3 minute read
Has age caught up with the evergreen Group One star Happy Clapper?
Trainer Pat Webster will get his answer when the popular 9YO resumes in the G1 Winx Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
It will be an ironic result if Happy Clapper wins the Winx Stakes as the race - formerly the Warwick Stakes - was renamed last year in honour of the now retired champion mare who proved a nemesis for Webster's gelding so many times in past seasons.
Happy Clapper became Winx's greatest rival, meeting the mare 11 times during her career. And as anybody with even just an inkling of recent Australian racing events will know he was never able to foil her remarkable record of 33 successive wins that began in 2015.
He came off second best in five of those 11 races from the time they first hooked up in the G1 George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill in 2016.
So here we are in 2019….Winx in retirement and Happy Clapper, incredibly, still up for it and facing a new challenge in a race he has never previously contested since his career kicked off in 2013.
Yes, despite his longevity that has seen him race 41 times for 11 wins and 15 placings - earning almost $7 million for his Canberra owner Michael Thomas – the Winx Stakes has never previously been on Happy Clapper's agenda due to Webster's preference for avoiding August as the starting point for his spring campaigns.
That changes on Saturday, perhaps because this is the first time since 2016 that Winx is not contesting the race she won three years in succession.
No Winx will be seen as a blessing for Happy Clapper, but Webster admits her absence does little to lessen the challenges he faces to win the first Group One of the season.
Firstly it's a rarity for any 9YO to win first-up, especially at G1 level under weight-for-age conditions against younger rivals still to reach the peak of their powers.
Then there's the bleeding attack Happy Clapper suffered last spring that resulted in a mandatory three month ban from racing that was followed by a second milder internal pulmonary haemorrhage that was reported after he failed in the inaugural All Star Mile at Flemington in March.
That internal bleed in itself is not unusual amon g thoroughbreds and did not prevent Happy Clapper from taking on Winx in her final race in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 2000m at Randwick in April where he finished fourth.
Take it that Webster knows his horse. Be assured the health of the gelding is not in question or he would not be pressing him into competition on Saturday.
But the astute trainer has admitted to some concern about the form his veteran has displayed in his two Randwick barrier trials leading into Saturday's race.
In the first he was beaten almost five lengths over 900m on July 30 and then finished an average sixth, beaten 1.7 lengths, in his second trial over 1000m on August 12.
Webster admitted Happy Clapper "on face value" was disappointing in those trials but they have not dimmed his faith in the gelding's ability to perform at the top level – especially when he races in blinkers as he will on Saturday, replacing the winkers he wore in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in April.
"He's a Randwick horse and he's a blinkers horse," Webster said. "The blinkers go on and he's so competitive with them on.
"There was a bit of a cloud over him after he bled in Melbourne but he hasn't shown any soundness issues. He certainly doesn't know he's nine."
And then we have the Hugh Bowman factor.
That's right, the jockey who rode Winx in 32 of her 37 wins and inflicted all those defeats on Happy Clapper over the last three years is now his race jockey, getting the call up from Webster following Blake Shinn's departure for Hong Kong.
It could be Webster's masterstroke as this is certainly Bowman's race – he has won it four years in succession having also ridden Royal Descent in her 2015 prior to his treble aboard Winx.
"Hughie will certainly know how to ride him, he's seen plenty of him over the years," Webster quipped.
The betting is the bottom line and punters have rallied behind the veteran since he was posted as a $6 chance in the opening markets on Wednesday.
Within 24 hours he had firmed to $4.20 – a move that suggests there will be plenty of applause should Happy Clapper upstage his younger rivals on Saturday by winning his fourth G1 race – proving once again that in racing you're never too old!