Longmore's patience pays dividends

IAN LONGMORE insists on taking no credit as the breeder of his homebred Canford Cliffs Gr 2 Golden Horse Sprint winner Tenango, but he should take a bow for his patience, and no doubt considerable expenditure, in ensuring the four-year-old gelding, who had been hampered by a breathing issue early in his career, fulfilled his potential.

- DAVID THISELTON

In saying that nobody yet knows the limit of this Candice Bass-Robinson-trained horse's potential, such was the ease of his victory on Saturday, which allowed Andrew Fortune to point to the crowd and lick his lips in typical showboating style.

Tan said, "I can't take any credit for it, even though I bred her. In this game you need luck, and on top of that you need more luck, and this was just a helluva lot of luck. I was given the mare by Roland Bouwer from Syrilla Stud. Every now and then the guys clean up some of their mares and he asked me if I wanted her. I said yes, absolutely, and the rest is history I guess." Tenango is out of Tripadvisor, a Trippi mare whose only win was over 1150m at Turffontein Inside. However, she had only had one foal when Ian acquired her.

He said, "Trippi mares do well and I fancied something about the breeding. Charles Faull also told me once "You've got to breed back to the female lines’. I don't know much about breeding, but I thought she looked like a good match to the stallions who were options."

The next bit of luck happened in the choice of stallion.

Tan said, "I'm big pals with Craig Carey and Ross Kieswetter and they said the mare could stand at Ridgemont and the stallion options at the time were Canford Cliffs or Potala Palace (both of whom stand at Ridgemont). So when covering time arrived I flipped a coin and Canford Cliffs won it! So that is what I am saying, there is nothing smart about me with breeding, I would like to think I'm clever, but Tm not.”