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Source: The Daily Telegraph
SO, why the long face?Meet Benji Bullet, the horse who continues to humiliate his superstar NRL owners by getting flogged every time he goes to the racetrack.
While the likes of thoroughbred royalty Black Caviar, More Joyous and Pierro all contest Group1 races this weekend at Moonee Valley and Rosehill, Benji Bullet will be up in his Sunshine Coast stable, wondering what it would be like to finish first.
The ultimate insult came last Thursday when Benji Bullet lined up on the Sunshine Coast and was thrashed by 32 lengths.
Wests Tigers superstar Benji Marshall is officially listed as an owner. So is his skipper Robbie Farah, teammates Chris Lawrence and Blake Ayshford, assistant coach Royce Simmons and Holden Cup coach Todd Payten. There’s also larrikin Cronulla prop Bryce Gibbs, and Penrith head trainer Alan Mair, whose brother Mick Mair is the horse’s trainer.
Marshall cringed and shook his head in disgust when The Daily Telegraph mentioned Benji Bullet to him at training yesterday.
Marshall and his teammates were only listed as owners when Benji Bullet started racing. They haven’t paid any training fees nor collected any winnings.
They were given an option to purchase a share of the horse if he started to show promise. Naturally, there have been no takers.
As one Tigers player said: “Even if I had a share, I would have sold it a long time ago.”
Farah and Lawrence said they had higher hopes for an unraced two-year-old they named Koroibete, in reference to Tigers’ Fijian flyer Marika Koroibete, who will be trained by Gerald Ryan.
Benji Bullet occupying his traditional place in running - last (rear on rail). Picture: Glenn BarnesSimmons, who won a premiership in 1991 with Penrith, said: “It’s hopeless. Even I’d beat him in a foot race over 25m. I was glad I went to England for two years (to coach St Helens) because I was sick of doing my money.”
Mick Mair, who has trained horses for 30 years and won the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate with Swiss Ace in 2009, wasn’t sure if Benji Bullet would ever break his maiden status.
“He can gallop, he just doesn’t like to do it on race day,” Mair said.
"It’s a bit like the football star who trains well all week, then plays no good on the weekend.
"He’s got a good sidestep like Benji, he’s just not very quick going forward.
“The boys have never come up to watch him, but that’s only because he’s never given them a reason to.”
Benji Bullet, who races in the Tigers’ black and orange colours, will be given a few weeks to have a long, hard think about his efforts before he is unleashed again.
His 32 starts have featured zero wins and 10 placings. He’s won $18,900 in prizemoney, which is not even the equivalent of a Marshall match payment.
Good for a bit of a laugh, Mod’s not sure where this article should reside, so feel free to move to correct location if needed. -
Read that in the paper this morning. Funny stuff, especially about a new horse they named Koroibete!
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32 starts is a long time to be a maiden… Time for action, put it over the jumps and see if he’s any good at that…
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I know a few maidens who have had more than 32 tstarts. Oh, wait, we are talking race horses. Sorry. Wrong thread.
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I know a few maidens who have had more than 32 starts. Oh, wait, we are talking race horses. Sorry. Wrong thread.
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I recall a horse that raced until last year at 13 years old that never won a race.
Koroibete is gonna be a good’un I dare say. Pretty sure there is decent horse going around named Uate as well.
