By Jonny Turner
From the outside looking in, it may look like fate that Tour Party has become a Group One winning star for Kentuckiana Lodge.
The classy two-year-old sped away from his rivals to score the easiest of elite-level victories at Alexandra Park on Friday night for trainers Cran and Chrissie Dalgety and driver Carter Dalgety.
In winning his first Group One race in just his third start, Tour Party joined the long line of stars the Dalgetys have selected at the national yearling sales and syndicated among their loyal clients.
With the colt being a full brother to champion pacer Republic Party, Tour Party may look like the easiest decision Kentuckiana Lodge has made at the sales.
But that wasn’t quite the case.
“Naturally, we were keen to have a good look at him, but the question was, are we buying him because he’s a full brother to Republic Party,” Cran said.
“I didn’t want to be buying him out of sentiment, so I judged him quite harshly.”
“I inspected him and he was a lovely type of horse and there was no doubt he was on our short list.”
“You do have to balance which ones you are going to chase hard and we did anticipate he would be in that top bracket.”
“When he came into the ring, we were in a position to go after him and I was getting quite a lot of encouragement from Chrissie and Carter, who said I would be walking home if we didn’t get our hands on him.”
Judging by the outstanding professionalism he has shown in winning all three of his starts as an early two-year-old, many would also think Tour Party has been a natural from day one.
And while that has largely been the case, the very earliest stages of his career took some careful management.
“In his very early days, he was quite aggressive in his work and wanted to do everything at a million miles an hour.”
“Initially, it did look as though he would need gelding at the first opportunity.”
“We continued on and as he progressed, he came to it.”
“The further he has gone on he’s relaxed and turned himself into a real little professional.”
For the Dalgetys, selecting and developing yearlings into Group race performers is as good as it gets in harness racing.
And while it clearly comes with some challenges, the results are incredibly satisfying.
“I have always said that winning any race is a thrill,” Cran said.
“You could win a maiden around the traps and to see your owners get a great kick out of it, it is very rewarding.”
“Then there are the big races everyone would love to put on the mantlepiece; we are no different.”
“But the ultimate for us is to select these young horses and have them develop from being a raw product into a top-class racehorse.”
“It adds an extra layer to what is a huge thrill.”
Tour Party will soon be back in Canterbury following his Group One win.
The Dalgetys plan to step the two-year-old out at Addington early next month for owners G & L Ayers, R Hill, J Rooney, the Girls On Tour Syndicate, H Scott, E Morgan, J Farrell, G Dickey, R Syme, J Clarke, A Mee, G & B Hulston, J Mantell, A Marshall, T Snell, J Roughan, J Banks & Chrissie.
