Quirky mare known as ‘Missy’ could be Caulfield Cup bound
Early in her race career No Effort (Reward For Effort) lived up to her name because she didn’t make much of it on the track.
It wasn’t until her 17th start on July 20, 2019, in the depths of winter at Moe, that she finally managed to break through for a win.
And it came just in the nick of time because her part-owner, Ross Hennessy, travelled to the track that day expecting to deliver the bad news to her then trainer, Allan Cooper, that he was putting the cue in the rack.
“I was going to sack her, the trainer and the racing colours. The horse had done nothing after 16 starts. Then she won. It was a weird day,” said Hennessy.
After the surprising change in fortune down at Gippsland, No Effort continued to make a right fool of those who had designs on giving up on her by winning her next four starts in succession, including the Pinker Pinker Plate (2025m) at Cranbourne.
Sadly, a year after her big turnaround in form, her original trainer was diagnosed with cancer and his poor health meant stepping away from his passion of working with horses.
“Allan broke her in and was a farrier and trainer. He got terribly ill and he had 15 percent of the horse which he gave back. He had to relinquish the horse because he was dying of cancer,” said Hennessy.
“They were going to turn the machines off and then one day he moved his fingers so they kept him alive and he’s still with us today.”
Twelve months later at Caulfield last Saturday, Cooper had to watch from the sidelines as No Effort, at the ripe age of seven, won the Heatherlie Stakes (Listed, 1700m) for her new trainer Gavin Bedggood.
“Gavin and (his partner) Karen have done a tremendous job with her and she’s got better and better as this prep goes on,” Hennessy explained.
To his amazement, it’s now possible she might sneak her way into the Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) field.
“He’s entered her in the goddamned Caulfield Cup and I said ‘well live the dream and see what happens’.”
Bedggood, a former leading jumps jockey who took out his trainer’s license four years ago, can’t believe the difference in the mare since he began working with her last spring and said the key to her racing more genuinely has been pairing her up with another handy horse in his stable, Sir Kalahad (All Too Hard).
“She was struggling for form a bit and her first run for me was pretty average. We couldn’t get her to settle and she used to spend all day walking the fence and wouldn’t eat much,” Bedggood said.
“I was on the verge of sending her home and back to her owners but we thought we would try and put her in with another horse and that did the trick. She stopped walking and started eating and put on 20 kilos and her form turned around.
“She always spends each day outside with her mate and they are side by side in a box at night. She’s the type of mare that doesn’t like much change and is a real horse of routine.”
Now he’s found the key to her, he’s got some ambitious plans for the rest of the spring.
“Saturday was a fork in the road run for her and if she didn’t show she was good enough she would have gone back to a country cup,” he said.
“We would be mad not to push her on if she was to win her next start in the Naturalism Stakes, as it gets her ballot exempt from the Caulfield Cup, so we might as well have a throw at the stumps, you never know.
“Wouldn’t that be a story? She loves Caulfield and has a really good record there.”
If she was to make it that far, it would be a dream come true for Ross Henessy, whose late partner Melissa Buys bred her.
Buys died of cancer exactly three years ago to the day that No Effort won the Heatherlie Stakes last weekend.
“It was very sad on Saturday,” Hennessy reflected.
He explained how not only did Buys breed just the one foal, No Effort, from their mare Hold The Lion (Lion Cavern), who is now 18, she also came up with the design of her distinctive animal print racing colours which have developed a global following.
“People from all over the world, in England and all over the place, follow those colours now.”
Hennessy and Buys bought Monomeith Stud Farm in Gippsland 25 years ago so that they could ride horses together there.
It wasn’t long after settling in that they discovered just how steeped in racing history the property was and before they knew it they were lured into the thoroughbred breeding game.
They ended up standing stallions at Monomeith for a while including Picnicker (Snippets) and 1995 Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Principality (Victory Prince).
“We had him (Principality) for ages and ages and in those days Blue Diamond winners were not the flavour of the month, they were cheap. Now they are all the go,” Hennessy said.
These days Monomeith specialises in providing spelling and pre-training services for a number of long time clients including Mick Price and Robbie Griffiths.
Hennessy has staff in place to run the business and whenever he can he enjoys poking around early in the morning down at the track and keeping a keen eye on No Effort, who seems to provide him with no end of entertainment with her quirky antics.
“They call her ‘Missy’. When you go near her, her ears go down like an alien and she will try and bite your head off. Pardon my French but she’s a real snakey b***h, but that’s what makes her run, she’s a character and we love her.”
And who knows, that gritty character might just get to the post in the Caulfield Cup in October.