TIDES RIGHT


5 June, 2008.
PAUL McIlveen has been pulling his hair out for the past couple of weeks.
With work commitments and the weather, he has been unable to race or trial his grand staying bitch Californian Babe.
But you wouldn’t have known that after she came from behind to win a 710m 4th-5th Grade at Albion Park on Thursday night.
She scored by a neck over Red Bikini with a length to Miss Dolcetto in third.
It was her 13th win and ninth at headquarters.
“I wanted to get a race into her on Monday night but the meeting was called off with the rain,” said Mclveen.
“And I haven’t been able to get a trial into her anywhere as well.”
So McIlveen resorted to his back yard … the beach at Beachmere.
“We’ve been watching the tides and slipping her up the beach three and four times a day for a few days in a row,” he said.
“It has worked really well with her.”
McIlveen is now keen to drop his bitch back to 395m.
A win over that distance will make her the first to win over all four distances at Albion Park.
“It’s a real aim of mine,” said McIlveen. “I’m not sure when I will get the opportunity to drop her back to that distance.
“But it will happen.”
McIlveen said muscle man Noel Foster had found a problem with the bitch’s pin muscles in recent weeks.
“With those fixed, she was ready to win,” said McIlveen. “Pity I didn’t have anything on her.”



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