Hemmings stable ducks into super result

By Jordan Gerrans

In the end the decision was taken out of the hands of the Hemmings stable but leading into last Friday, there was feverish discussion around the plans for galloper Super Duck. 

The five-year-old is a homebred gelding by the Warwick-based team of Naomi and Michael Hemmings. 

When acceptances were declared on Thursday of last week, Super Duck was locked into two races for Saturday. 

He was set for the Benchmark 78 Handicap over 1350 metres at Doomben and the Open Handicap over 1200 metres at Chinchilla.

While dual acceptances is commonplace in racing, this one was a little out of the ordinary. 

It is rare to see a horse accepted to race on a Group 1 program from Doomben as well as at a country meeting almost four hours away.

Michael wanted to head to town with Super Duck while Naomi was keen to go to the bush. 

After plenty of conversations, the decision was eventually made for the Hemmings barn as the Chinchilla meeting was abandoned late on Friday afternoon due to significant rainfall in the local area. 

With no other options, the stable headed to the city on Saturday and Super Duck led from start to finish to score at a massive price. 

“When they cancelled the races, it made the decision easy,” Michael said in reflection.

Michael is listed as trainer of Super Duck but with all the Hemmings’ gallopers – it is a team effort. 

Naomi took the horse into the city on Saturday and was quick to note post-race that she was initially thinking Chinchilla would be their best option. 

“I wanted to go to Chinchilla, just with the barrier,” Naomi said of Super Duck’s starting position of 13 at Doomben.

“But, Michael was pretty adamant we would go to town, so we were always going to go to town.”

After winning the Flinton Cup on the non-TAB circuit two starts back, Super Duck ran a great race behind Ser Joh at Eagle Farm earlier this month on a Saturday. 

That was what pushed the 80-year-old Michael to believe shooting for higher honours was the way to go. 

“He’s a funny little guy, everyone loves him,” Naomi said.

“I actually wanted to go to Chinchilla with him, so I’m glad we didn’t. The horse has got a lot of potential; it was just the wide barrier that put me off.

“He actually ran pretty well last start, just got a bit squeezed for room. So maybe the wide barrier wasn’t a bad option for him. 

“He started well and sat up outside the leader, so he was obviously feeling pretty good about himself.”

The 52-year-old Naomi rides plenty of trackwork for the stable. 

Super Duck has now won seven races from 37 attempts as well as being placed on 11 more occasions.

The victory was Michael’s first as a trainer in the city on a Saturday in his lengthy tenure in the industry. 

He owned a metropolitan winner way back in the late 1970s but said it was special to finally prepare a winner in the big smoke during the carnival. 

And, it made it all the more sweeter seeing as Super Duck was bred by the regional racing clan.

“It puts a bit of icing on it,” Michael said.

“We breed a couple every year, on average one or two at least a year but sometimes we have as many as five.

“We put this one up for auction at Magic Millions but we never got a sensible offer for him, so we took him on and raced him ourselves.

“We are the ones smiling now.”

Angela Jones did the steering for the Hemmings stable on Saturday. 

“He began well and I just wanted to stay nice and clean and roll along,” Jones said.

“He was bolting in the run, I thought he might have been doing too much but he was feeling so well within himself and he gave such a good kick.

“He loves these conditions and you can’t count out some of the bigger-priced horses on heavy tracks.”