Cranky Spin Around Biting Fit For Cup
- Monday, 02 November 2009 06:15
Spin Around is angry and that's a good sign a day out from the Melbourne Cup, says his trainer Steve Cooper.
"The fitter he gets the angrier he gets and he's ready to take on Mike Tyson now," Cooper said of the gelding he has nursed through two suspensory ligament injuries.
"If you stay around the middle of him you are perfectly safe. He is sharp at both ends, very quick with his teeth and his feet.
"I think the majority of people around him are carrying scars.
"Generally he is a nice horse - just don't turn your back on him."
Bookmakers rate Spin Around little chance and have posted him at $201 but Cooper begs to differ.
"He is well qualified and has got less weight (52kg) than he has ever carried in his life. I don't see a problem," he said.
"Spin Around doesn't know what price he is - if he was odds-on favourite does it mean he goes faster?"
The horse doesn't know his age either and his racing career has been well spaced.
Cooper and his partner Michelle Stebbing came to New Zealand from England nine years ago on holiday and loved the place so much they stayed.
The 53-year-old Cooper has been involved in horses all his life, much of it spent in Devon in the southwest of England.
He was a member of the Household Cavalry at Buckingham Palace and spent a lot of time at point-to-points and hunts in Devon, but was never involved with racing on the flat until he came to New Zealand.
He became a trainer only four years ago and is the private trainer for Hong Kong owner Danny Wong.
Spin Around began his racing career in Hong Kong where he won four races but was sent to Cooper because of his suspensory injuries.
Hydrotherapy sessions and tender loving care have helped him return to the track and his six victories since joining Cooper's stable 2-1/2 years ago include this year's Auckland Cup (3200m), a win that set him on the Melbourne Cup trail.
He is one of two nine-year-olds in the Cup along with the Colin Little-trained Ista Kareem and the pair will be striving to become the first of their age group to claim Australia's most famous race.
Ista Kareem will also be out to become the first galloper since Makybe Diva in 2004 to claim the Sydney and Melbourne Cups in the same year.
