A pair of flat tyres temporarily stalled bush champion Tiger Legend, but he’s since scored a $200,000 race and is a contender in Friday’s Rockhampton Newmarket.
Tiger Legend is now raced by champion country trainer John Manzelmann after stints with Tony Gollan in Brisbane, Les Bridge in Sydney and even a couple of starts in the Hong Kong racing mecca.
Tiger Legend led all the way to win the $200,000 Battle Of The Bush Final at Eagle Farm last month but it was almost a case of missed opportunity.
Manzelmann was en route to the Battle Of The Bush qualifier at Thangool with Tiger Legend earlier this year before a couple of flat tyres stopped him in his tracks.
Thankfully, all was not lost as he was able to qualify Tiger Legend for the city race by scoring a qualifier at the little bush town of Mount Garnet, 160km southwest of Cairns.
Jockey Ash Butler and trainer John Manzelmann after Tiger Legend scored the Battle Of The Bush final. Picture: Grant Peters – Trackside Photography.
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“I had him set to race at the Thangool meeting and I got a couple of flat tyres along the way and I didn’t make it,” Manzelmann said.
“I called up another trainer for help as he had the same car as me.
“But I was trying to change the tyres and I couldn’t work out what was going on as it wasn’t working.
“It turned out his car was a year younger than mine and they had changed the number of tyre studs.
“So, after going through that, I was very happy he won the qualifier at Mount Garnet and even happier when he won the big final at Eagle Farm.”
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Manzelmann and Tiger Legend make for an extraordinary story. The Mackay-based trainer was once so sick with terminal leukaemia he was paid out his life insurance policy when he was told he had three months to live.
And Tiger Legend has been here, there and everywhere.
In the latest portion of his racing career in Queensland, he has completed at far flung locations including Cooktown and Charters Towers as well as Gladstone and Home Hill.
When he first arrived in Manzelmann’s stables, the trainer thought he was purely a 1000m speed horse. But after racing him at tight tracks in the outback, the trainer’s opinion changed.
He will race over 1300m in Friday’s Newmarket and Manzelmann isn’t too worried by a wide gate, feeling that the Vo Rogue Plate winner of 2022 could be best ridden off the speed.
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“I originally thought he was an out-and-out 1000m horse,” Manzelmann said.
“But I took him to a few of those bush tracks and they weren’t expansive enough for him.
“I actually reckon he is better coming from behind. Some races he has won he has led, but he sort of floats when is in front.
“I normally steer away from the Rockhampton carnival as you get Tony (Gollan) coming up and some good horses from Brisbane.
“I normally go off somewhere else and hide. But this year I have got Tiger Legend, so there is nowhere to hide.”
Tiger Legend will be ridden by Ron Stewart and is a $17 chance on TAB fixed odds.