Super Duck in bid for Big Dance

By Glenn Davis

Veteran Warwick trainer Michael Hemmings has already had the last laugh with Super Duck and he’s hopeful more joy will come in the Pink Ribbon Cup at the Gold Coast on Saturday.

The Gold Coast Turf Club proudly conducts the breast cancer fund raising raceday each year and Hemmings has thrown his support behind the club’s efforts.

Super Duck gave Hemmings his first metropolitan winner at Doomben in May and his second in the city when successful on the same track in July.

Both wins were on heavy tracks and Hemmings has a spring in his step for more success with weather forecasters predicting a shower or two for the Gold Coast meeting.

Super Duck was bred by Hemmings and his wife Naomi who also is a trainer in her own right at Warwick.

“We bred him and tried to sell him at the Magic Millions but he was passed in after we never got a decent offer,” Naomi Hemmings said.

The gamble to race the son of Supido has paid off in spades as the six-year-old has won more than $240,000 in prize money with eight wins and 13 placings from 43 starts.

The aptly named Super Duck is a duck on rain-affected tracks having started seven times on heavy tracks for three wins and a placing but Naomi believes he’s not purely a wet tracker.

“He’s not just restricted to wet tracks,” she said.

“It’s more that he can handle the wet while others don’t seem to handle it as good as him.

“He’s just as good on top of the ground as he is on wet tracks.”

Since his last metropolitan triumph in July, Super Duck was placed at Eagle Farm and finished second in the Murwillumbah Cup before a last start fourth in a 1615-metre Benchmark race at Doomben on September 6.

The Murwillumbah Cup performance qualified Super Duck for the $3 million The Big Dance over 1600 metres at Randwick on Melbourne Cup Day in November.

“He’s super fit and we’ve never had him as fit as we have him now,” Hemmings said.

“He should be hard to beat again and if he runs well, he’ll go down for The Big Dance.

“If he misses the race for some reason then he can still run in The Little Dance.”

The Little Dance will be run over the same trip and on the same day as The Big Dance but with a $500,000 prize pool.