Written by Paul Vettise
Pravda (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) ended her racing days more famous for what she didn’t do rather than a decorated stakes career and so irony hung heavily in the air after her son Gone West (NZ) (Reliable Man {GB}) won on Melbourne Cup Day at Ellerslie.
The mare was a three-time stakes winner and Group 1-placed, a more than respectable tally, but it was her behaviour at Flemington two decades ago that she’s unfortunately remembered for.
Pravda walked out on to the track for the 2000 G1 Melbourne Cup, but that was as far as the well-related mare got when she refused to take another step.
Despite the cajolings of champion jockey Lance O’Sullivan, whose brother Paul trained Pravda, the 50-1 shot wouldn’t budge and time was called and stewards deemed her a late scratching.
“I have never seen anything in my life like that,’’ Paul O’Sullivan said afterwards. “She just had an attack of nerves. When she got home she was as good as gold.”
Son does everything right
Her son Gone West showed no such unwillingness at Ellerslie on Tuesday to win for the second time in his brief career for trainers David and Emma-Lee Browne.
Gone West was bred by Dame Sian Elias and Hugh Fletcher, who raced Pravda, and was sold through the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale for NZ$40,000 to the bid of the Brownes and Sparta Bloodstock.
Gone West as a yearling
And in another tie to Flemington, he was offered through the draft of Rich Hill Stud who co-bred and sold the 2015 Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance (NZ) (Pentire {GB}).
“Pravda is still here and is as bright as a button. She’s running with Arletty and Gemstone in a retirement paddock,” Rich Hill’s John Thompson said.
“She was a good breeder and was easy to deal with, a lovely mare to have around the place.”
“She was a good breeder and was easy to deal with, a lovely mare to have around the place.” – John Thompson
Her Flemington antics apart, Pravda was a talented performer who won eight races, including the G2 Taranaki Cup and at Group 3 level in the Chairman’s H. and Manion Cup in Australia. She was also runner-up in the G1 New Zealand Oaks.
She has been a good producer with nine of her 10 foals to race successful and among them the Listed Aspiration H. winner Pravana (Anabaa {USA}) and the G3 Wellington Cup runner-up The Good Fight (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}).
Pravda is a sister to the G1 Adelaide Cup winner Cronus (NZ) and the family of the former champion Australian filly and multiple Group 1 winner Samantha’s Choice (Redoute’s Choice).
Pravda’s final foal, a Reliable Man (GB) colt, was sold at Karaka by Rich Hill to Waverley horseman Bill Thurlow for NZ$13,000 earlier this year.
