Raise You Ten to our to honour the late Frank Conway
Longtime friend and client of White Robe Lodge and Brian and Lorraine Anderton, the late Frank Conway.
By Jonny Turner
Republished with the permission of RaceForm
Trainer Brian Anderton is hoping to honour a good friend by producing Raise You Ten for a special win in the Waimate Cup at Timaru on Sunday following the passing of his owner Frank Conway last week.
Anderton and Conway became friends when the White Robe Lodge trainer was campaigning horses in the North Island in the 1970s.
At the same time Conway’s star mare Mayo Gold was doing incredible things on the North Island race tracks.
Over six decades their association continued as both friends and through Conway breeding and racing a line of horses at White Robe Lodge.
“I met Frank when I was a pretty young when he was racing Mayo Gold,” Anderton said.
“We became good friends, he was a real gentleman, just a really good fellow.”
“We knew each other well and we were telephone friends, he would ring me every Tuesday at 11am, religiously.”
“We used to discuss the stock, the weather and everything else.”
“He was a great man and he was very patient with his horses.”
“Not that long ago we were talking about one of his horses and he said ‘don’t get in a hurry with it’.”
“He was a great for giving them time to develop.”
Younger readers and those not familiar with Conway’s long involvement in thoroughbred racing may only recognise him from both recent articles and advertisements in RaceForm.
Anderton would like nothing more than to deliver a win in memory of his late friend in the Waimate Cup.
With the track rated in the soft range early this week the galloper should get conditions he likes – sting out of the ground without it being too heavy.
The major question mark over whether the seven-year-old can deliver a special victory is over him stepping up to 2200m.
In his three starts past 1600m, Raise You Ten has run two placings.
Anderton is confident the galloper can stretch his distance range out further on Sunday.
“We have put him up in distance, we just thought he is ready to go the distance and he is bred to get the distance.”
“He is a horse that has been harshly treated in the weights in a lot of his starts.”
“He seems to have gotten more than he deserved all of the way through.”
“He is not a big horse, so it is hard on him carrying weight all the time.”
“Shane (Anderton) has been doing things a bit different with him lately.”
“He has been schooling him, he is a pretty proficient jumper and he has been doing hill work here on the farm.”
“So, we are hoping for a good run.”
Though Raise You Ten steps up sharply in trip, it pales in comparison to what Conway’s Mayo Gold faced during her incredible hat-trick during the 1969 Wellington Cup Carnival.
After winning sprint races on the first two days of the meeting, the champion filly incredibly stepped up to 2000m and won the first ever running of the New Zealand Oaks with a slipped saddle.