Dave Blackie is still coming down to earth after Sound Of Silence (NZ) (Roc De Cambes) delivered a phenomenal first training victory for the Cambridge horseman at Te Aroha on Thursday.
A seven-year-old by Roc De Cambes, Sound Of Silence was on debut over the steeplechase fences after having a pair of fitness runs on the flat and a steeplechase trial at Cambridge this campaign, and was rated a $24 chance in the hands of Jay Kozaczek.
Kozaczek settled the gelding back in the field through the running before storming into contention nearing the second-last fence, where Sound Of Silence found a spectacular closing surge to make the final margin 11 ¼ lengths to Pontardawe.
A long-time jumps racing enthusiast, Blackie was having his first runner over the fences and admitted he had not anticipated such a big result.
“I’m still buzzing, it was unbelievable. It’ll take me a few weeks to come back down to earth after this one,” he said.
“I was hopeful he would run top-five on Thursday, but never in my wildest dreams did I think he could win, let alone like that.
“Jay rode a very patient race, and he said that when he asked him for an effort at the 600m he just kept giving, and he will go further.
“I spoke to Shaun Phelan afterwards, and he said on a run like that and knowing he can go a lot further, you have to consider the Northern, but it’s very much one step at a time.
“At the moment he’s a very happy, fit horse and it’s a matter of keeping him that way. We’ll probably get a race on the flat in and go back to Te Aroha again in four weeks’ time. Shaun suggested getting a run in at Te Rapa would be beneficial with the crossings and the mix of brush and live fences, so we’ll see if something comes up.”
Although the win came at such a surprise, Blackie noted several coincidences that made the victory seemingly meant to be at the Waikato venue.
“His stable name is Buck, named after Buck Shelford because I always thought for a good steeplechaser, you had to have to be as tough as him,” he said.
“As it turned out, a bit of an uncanny twist that Buck played number eight for the All Blacks and that was our number on Thursday.
“Sound Of Silence came from a remade song by Disturbed, and it starts off slowly and finishes very strong, and that’s how he ran his race on Thursday. The commentator had written him off at the 600, but he came back and won by nearly 12 lengths.”
In search of a jumping type, Blackie purchased Sound Of Silence for $3,000 on gavelhouse.com from breeders The Oaks Stud in 2019 after two unplaced two-year-old trials, and the path from there hasn’t always been smooth.
“He was a big boned, immature type of horse that needed a bit of time,” Blackie said.
“I didn’t know much about the Roc De Cambes, but his pedigree included Sentimental Miss who won the Oaks (Gr.1, 2400m), Complacent, who stands at Mapperley Stud and won a Group One in Australia, and Lucky Unicorn, who has produced several winter gallopers and jumpers.
“When I did get him, I put him out on the hills in Kawhia for a year-and-a-half and he matured and grew.
“He is a paddock horse, he can’t do boxes and has been pretty nervy at times, but that’s just the type of horse he is, it hasn’t been an easy road by any stretch of the imagination.
“Last winter I had a lot of problems with his feet, he had a crack in the hoof that went up to his coronet. After struggling a bit with farriers, I found Ben van der Sande in Cambridge and he sorted him out so I can’t thank Ben enough for what he has done.”
Blackie had initially sent Sound Of Silence to Matamata trainers Peter and Jessica Brosnan for two preparations, before taking out his license again last year and having the horse under his own name.
“I had my license back in my twenties and had a jumper while I milked cows. Ron Cropp was the huntsman of Waikato when I was hunting there, and he had a great horse called Hunterville who won three Northerns, so I always had a lot of interest in the sport,” he said.
“My grandfather had racehorses, he won an Auckland Cup and a couple of Avondale Cups, and he also bred a champion horse called Tulloch, who was inducted in the Racing Hall Of Fame after my grandfather had passed away. My father raced horses as well and my brother trains, but no one in the family had been interested in the jumpers before I got into it.
“I train him (Sound Of Silence) out of Rivermonte Park in Cambridge, which was Mark Todd’s old place and Keith and Amanda Walker came out from the UK and brought it back up to a very high standard.
“I’ve just got a regular day job, so after I finish work in the afternoons, I do his work. It’s got an 800m sand track with a hill, so he gets a bit of canter work up there.
“I want to thank my wife Stephany who is a partner in Buck for the time I spend with him, especially the late nights after working during the day.”
