The Tiger with Danny Adam aboard leads Pergola and Roger Booth in a track gallop at Cranbourne on Tuesday morning. The Colin Alderson pair have both been nominated for Sunday’s Cranbourne Cup.
By David Nagel
VETERAN Cranbourne trainer Colin Alderson won’t take a two-pronged attack into Sunday’s TAB Sportsbet Cranbourne Cup and will instead have a tilt at two major pieces of racing silverware on his home track within a week.
Alderson has two runners nominated for the Cranbourne Cup, Pergola and The Tiger, but told a cup week business breakfast on Tuesday that he didn’t want to cut off his nose to spite his face and would probably split the pair.
Both horses have a similar racing style so Alderson is thinking of a different path for one of his runners.
“We’ve nominated both for this Sunday but The Tiger might head to the Moe Cup, we don’t want them getting in each other’s way.”
The Moe Cup is scheduled for Thursday 13 October. With works to that track not likely to pass muster by then, the meeting is likely to be transferred to Cranbourne, giving the club a bonus $140,000 race on its program – and Alderson less distance to travel.
“I think they’re still going to run the Moe Cup in December, so we get that race,” Cranbourne Turf Club chief executive Neil Bainbridge said. “We obviously haven’t got a sponsor for it, so I’ll give it to anyone who can sink a hole-in-one at our corporate golf day at Settlers Run.”
Alderson is as grassroots as it gets in horse racing circles.
He told the breakfast crowd that he learnt the ropes in an era where little technology was available and an understanding of a horses psyche was a key to success. It was this sixth sense that enabled Alderson to turn an Adelaide sprinter into his all-time favourite horse.
“Nicholas John never raced beyond 1400 metres until I got hold of him, he could run fantastic sectionals but no-one thought he’d be able to stay,” Alderson said.
“It was a matter of getting him to settle and we did that in his training, he went to Sydney and won The Metropolitan over 2600 metres, he went straight to the front, settled and had something left in the tank at the end.”
Some of the racing industry’s biggest names mixed freely with sponsors and general racing enthusiasts as former AFL footballer and coach Terry Wallace interviewed three special guests.
Alderson, Melbourne Heart soccer club CEO Scott Munn, and Casey councillor and former AFL footballer Geoff Ablett were the three in question.
Although they come from entirely different fields all three had a very similar message, particularly Munn and Alderson who believed passion, a grass roots approach and doing the basics well were keys to growing groups and individuals.
This was emphasised by Munn who played a key role in Melbourne Heart negotiating a landmark three-year deal with banking giant Westpac to grow the world game throughout Victoria at a grassroots level.
“It’s the first time any sporting organisation, including AFL clubs, has developed a team with the specific aim of running clinics and engaging with the community,” Munn said.
“I’m very proud that in the last 12 months we have run clinics for 40,000 hours and introduced the game to 25,000 boys and girls between the age of six and 14.”
The breakfast began a busy week of cup festivities for the club with a golf day being held on Wednesday and a Cup Calcutta on Friday night leading in to Sunday’s $200,000 Cranbourne Cup.
