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Colt Thirty One favourite for Victoria Cup – no name change

9 October 2019

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By Duane Ranger

Thankfully for Kevin and Kay Seymour bad luck hasn’t come in threes.

A day after losing their potential star stallion, Hurrikane Kingcole, and less than a week after being told Colt Thirty One can’t change his name to ‘Im A Queenslander’, the Seymours got some good news last night while holidaying in Maui, Hawaii.

Their multiple Group One winning two-time Queensland Horse-of-the-Year has drawn one for Saturday night’s Victoria Cup.

And as a result, the brilliant son of Mach Three has opened up a $3.50 favourite, with Cash N Flow second in the betting line at $3.80. The only other two quoted in single figure odds are Bling It On $4.60, and San Carlo $8.50.

The Grant Dixon trained and driven Colt Thirty One has had three starts at Melton’s Tabcorp Park for a win, a second, and a third. His victory came in the Group One $200,000 Victoria 3yo Derby in January 2018.

He drew 11 when winning that 2,240m mobile and paid a whopping $19.60 when he defeated Poster Boy by 1.2m. Saturday night's $250,000 Group One feature is over the same distance.

“If he comes through the race well, he will earn a trip to New Zealand for the Inter Dominions. We have high hopes for him,” Seymour said.

Colty Thirty One is ranked two for that Auckland Championship, which will be staged the right-hand-way-around at Alexandra Park. The Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen trained Spankem is the top seed.

Seymour said Fame Assured and Tennyson Bromac have also been nominated for the Inter Doms. They are ranked 39 and 41 respectively.

“Fame Assured resumed with a nice third behind her two stablemates (Leos Best and Colt Thirty One) last week and Tennyson Bromac was nominated for the Victoria Cup but never made the field. He’s now in a supporting race.

“Like Colt Thirty One, we will see how the develop in the next few weeks before confirming the trip to Auckland,” Seymour said.

“Long-term the $1 million Miracle Mile (March 7) is still one of the main aims of the season for him.” he added.

Tennyson Bromac opened the $12, fourth favourite for Saturday’s $24,000 Preux Chevalier Free-For-All at Melton. He has drawn one on the second row (eight) in that 2,240m mobile.

The 5-year-old son of Bettor's Delight will be looking for his eighth win in nine starts, and sixth in a row.

Meanwhile, Seymour said he was disappointed that Colt Thirty One would not have his name changed to Im A Queenslander.

“The exposure Queensland would have got from racing such a high-profile horse would have been enormous and a great talking point - not only in the harness racing industry, but with the general public at large.

“I’m not sure that we could measure the benefits, but it would have be lifted the profile of our sport here in Queensland, It would have also been great publicity for our State in New Zealand,” he said.

But Andrew Kelly, the Chief Executive of Harness Racing Australia, and keeper of the Australian Trotting Studbook, put his foot down.

“I had the office investigate the regulations and precedence for changing names after a horse had raced - and particularly any that had raced as successfully as Colt Thirty One.

“They could not recall any being changed other than poorly or offensively named horses. Unfortunately, the Stud Book Regulations are clear – and a change of name is not possible,” Kelly said.

A few days after being informed of that news, the Seymours got another kick in the guts when they were told Hurrikane Kingcole was found dead at Egmont Park  yesterday morning (Tuesday).

“It is one of my most disappointing occurrences in 50 years of breeding. Hurrikane Kingcole was a stallion with enormous potential and not only was his first season stock doing extremely well in Australia, but his progeny in the USA were setting the tracks on fire with horses like Hurrikane Empress, Hurrikane Emperor winning all before them.

“It is also sad loss for Egmont Park as his bookings this season were very heavy. We are sure that broodmare owners will be extremely disappointed,” Seymour said.