Victa Oreo Completes the Perfect Dozen
It’s a litter that continues to produce on the race track. Yesterday, it achieved a new feat in becoming a complete winning litter, with all twelve of the Fernando Bale x Victa Victoria litter having crossed the finish line first. Victa Oreo is unlikely to be known for his prowess on the track, but he can now claim the honour of being the last from the litter to break the maiden status. After some consistent form in recent times up the Murray Bridge Straight Track, Victa Oreo found himself a chance in another open maiden on Tuesday afternoon. With a moderate 4.57 first split, he jumped his usual self before receiving a bit of luck, which allowed him to sail through from box 1 and get an uncontested look at the arm, which he took with both paws! He won with ease in a respectable 17.18 and said farewell to maiden grade forever! The win brought much excitement and satisfaction to part owner, Carol Hondow.
“We’ve got a group chat between Sue, Lisa, Kerry, and myself, which is called the ‘Victas’. They posted that he won there and then I saw the replay at lunchtime,” said a jubilant Carol Hondow.
“I rang Dad (Ron Schadow) and I always say ‘how ya going dad’, and he will always reply with ‘still going’, but this time he replied with ‘I’m on cloud nine!’.”
“It feels amazing, to have a litter, and then to have all 12 of them make the track is huge, let alone have them all win.”
Victa Oreo has undoubtedly been a slow burn, primarily kept to straight track racing due to some troublesome wrists. However, patience has never worn thin for co-trainer Tony Rasmussen.
“He was getting close, Tony hadn’t given up on him at all. He has a lot of trouble with his wrists, so Tony has been doing a lot of work on them and the wrists have just been getting stronger and stronger. He’s been coming home really hard. He can’t corner on the track, so that’s why he’s been kept to the straight.”
The success of the litter has never really come as a surprise to all those involved, with the litter always looking like a good bunch.
“They always looked like really nice types and would always run well out in the paddock as pups. Then they came back from breaking in with great reports. They offered 50k for Haydn straight away. They’ve always been bigger dogs and more solid, nice and strong. Victa Victoria loved the distance and that’s been passed on to the boys.”
The Schadow family has bred plenty of litters in years gone by, but this amazing group of 12 have been a clear top pick.
“There’s been a couple of litters that Victa Victoria has had which have been right up there, but this has been the biggest and the best out of all of them.”
The litter is up to 380k in prize money, with 500k firmly in sight.
Picture: Victa Oreo (Kurt Donsberg Photography)