Don't give up lives up to his name

Craig Brennan
Friday, March 12, 2010

Don’tgiveup lived up to his name when a convincing winner in the $65,000 Initiation Stakes over 1200m on Friday night.

Ridden by Vlad Duric, Don’tgiveup came from well back before scoring a two length victory over debutant Blue Seven (Ruzaini Supien) with My Ninja (John Powell) a length-and-a-quarter away third.

The four-year-old was named by Edward Letchimanan, racing manager of the Jupiter Stable, who at the time was battling cancer.

Vlad Duric urges Don'tgiveup to the line for his maiden victory.

Trainer Steven Burridge said that injury on the eve of Don’tgiveup making his race debut 18 months ago was the reason he had been kept off the scene.

“He’s been pretty well named,” said Burridge. “Edward was battling cancer at the time when the horse was named and then the horse suffered an injury,” said Burridge.

“He was entered for a race on a Saturday and bowed a tendon on the Monday before he was due to run.

“We sent him up to Malaysia for a good spell and to recuperate. That was around 18 months.

“He’s done a good job to come back and win like he did tonight.”

Burridge said he was a little concerned about Don’tgiveup being back and so wide on the hometurn and also that the gelding was up in body weight.

“He hadn’t missed any work and had been going well on the track,” said Burridge. “So I was a little surprised that he was up 7kg in body weight.”

Don’tgiveup caught the eye with his debut performance when a fast finishing fourth to Maple Star in a 1200m Novice Stakes on February 20.

Dropping back in grade certainly helped and Burridge believes the gelding will be better suited with a step up in distance.

Don’tgiveup is a four-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding by Val Royal from the Danehill mare Astradane. He was a NZ$60,000 yearling purchase and has now won around $38,000 for Jupiter Stable.

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