Mick Tubman made a name for himself with fleet-footed Chance Bye but patience will be the key to another windfall with an inexpensive filly.
Tubman is hoping Mick’s Mantle is blue-riband material and he wants to set her on an Oaks path after she mixes it with the boys in the Inglis Bonus at Warwick Farm on Saturday.
“She’s always been a little bit immature,” Tubman, one of racing’s feelgood stories because of Chance Bye’s racetrack deeds, said.
“Chance Bye was a get out and run horse and Mick’s Mantle is not like that all. I’ve had to take my time with her.
“Still, I think she is going to be real good and I’ll give her a break after Saturday and get her ready for the Oaks (in Sydney).”
Chance Bye cost $15,000 and netted Tubman and his close friend Jack Knight almost $550,000 in a nine-start career.
Incentive bonuses from her earnings allowed Tubman enough monetary ammunition to buy five more horses on a return visit to the yearling sales.
“I spent one hundred thousand (dollars) all together but because of the Inglis bonus and the BOBS money I only had to put in twenty thousand (dollars) of my own,” he said.
Mick’s Mantle, who cost $10,000, has turned out to be one of the better ones from the package with the promise of more to come.
“She’s right in the race on Saturday … she worked the joint down (at Kembla Grange) this morning,” Tubman said.
“John O’Shea’s horse (Colorado Claire) looks the one to beat but I think I can beat it (with Mick’s Mantle).
“At least we’ll be in there punching away.”
Mick’s Mantle, a Kathy O’Hara ride, has raced four times for two Kembla Grange wins.
The three-year-old was having her second start over 1600m when a narrow winner on November 1 but Tubman said there was more merit in the victory than a neck margin would suggest.
“She looked beaten three or four times but that’s her,” Tubman said.
“She just keeps fighting.”
AAP TURF
