Image: Bradley photos
SUNDAY: February 9, 2025: MIKE Van Gestel’s return to the city winning list at Royal Randwick yesterday was timely.
Not only will the octogenarian Hawkesbury trainer turn 81 next week, but granddaughter Sarah will be 24 tomorrow.
The pair had special reason to each celebrate their birthdays when well supported Dark Glitter ($6 favorite) burst through on the inside to take the Benchmark 78 Handicap (1300m) for mares four-year-old and upwards.
Dark Glitter ran down It’s A Knockout ($6.50) and Kimberley Secrets ($9.60) to post the fifth win of her 22-start career, and give her trainer his first success in town since half-brother No Statement burnt off his rivals with a sheer display of speed to score at $41 on the Kensington track on October 18, 2023.
“It might be my last winner in town; who knows?,” Van Gestel said this morning.
“I was especially pleased for Sarah, who celebrated at the races with some friends.
“It wasn’t possible for me to promise her Dark Glitter would win, but expected her to run well.
“I don’t know where all the money came from to see her start favorite, but her form has been good.”
Van Gestel, who started training in 1976 and won his first race the following year with Louisa’s Joy (named after his wife) at Rosehill Gardens, never keeps more than a few horses in work.
The Van Gestels went to the 2018 Inglis Australian Broodmare & Weanling sale in Sydney hoping to buy a filly by Golden Slipper winner Vancouver, but she was above their budget and fetched $50,000 to New Zealand interests.
She subsequently fetched NZ$150,000 at a Ready2Run sale as an early two-year-old, and racing as Sakura Blossom won two of her only three starts.
Whilst they missed out on Sakura Blossom, the Van Gestels didn’t go home empty-handed.
They purchased her dam, the Bernardini mare Berning Affair (who was in foal to Press Statement) for $12,000 – and what a buy she was for them!
The couple raced the Press Statement foal as No Statement, and whilst currently spelling, the now six-year-old gelding has won 13 races and been placed 16 times and collected just over $450,000 in prizemoney and bonuses.
Subsequently mated with the now deceased Spieth, Berning Affair’s next foal was Dark Glitter, who has earned nearly $265,000.
After producing Dark Glitter, Berning Affair was sold to Gerry Harvey, who sent her to New Zealand in April 2023.
She foaled a filly by Vancouver (a sister to Sakura Blossom and half-sister to No Statement and Dark Glitter) before being shipped across the Tasman. The unraced two-year-old is named Where All On, and is with Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
Van Gestel says he pushed Dark Glitter a bit too hard 12 months ago when her ran her in two Provincial-Midway Championships Qualifiers, but without success.
“It was her first racing preparation, and she had won two of her first three starts (at Canberra and Hawkesbury),” he said.
“Taking on the more seasoned horses as an inexperienced three-year-old was a bit much for her,” Van Gestel said.
“But she has come back really well after a spell and, from eight starts since early November, has won twice, finished second four times and been fourth on the other two occasions.
“We just made the field yesterday in the Benchmark 78 with 54kg, and Molly’s 2kg claim brought her in with 52kg.
“She drew the inside barrier, and we had no other option but to stay there in the run, and Molly did a good job to bring her home.
“Dark Glitter is still not the finished product. She’s a bit finicky but keeps improving and hopefully we can find another suitable city race for her.”
Dark Glitter is not eligible for this year’s Provincial-Midway Championships as she has had more than the maximum number of 20 starts under the conditions of the series.