Debbie: How I found $3000 to bid on My Copy and why hubby Ray is on a promise not to sell

Reaching high to towel down hulking Auckland winner My Copy, Debbie Green recalled the day she bought the horse when he was a black, hairy midget.

It was May, 2019, a month before his half-brother, Copy That, won his first race, and few at New Zealand Bloodstock’s all aged sale had even heard of the now New Zealand Cup champion.

A December foal, so only five months old, the little ball of fluff by Woodlands Stud’s Highview Tommy wasn’t on anybody’s must-buy list.

But, for Green he was one of only two weanlings she was interested in.

The one she really wanted was lot 111 as Copy That had shown rare speed in training with her husband Ray at Lincoln Farms and she knew he was planning on selling the colt for good money as soon as his manners were sorted.

My Copy as a tiny weanling.The other, a far bigger and more mature colt, later in the sale, was also by Highview Tommy and was a half-brother to three previous Lincoln Farms’ success stories, Lincoln Road, Lincoln’s Girl and Tommy Lincoln.

The only problem was where to find the money to buy one?

“We had no money,” Green said. “It all goes at home on fencing, the garden or our animals. So I sat down the day before the sale and did my GST return and the amount I had coming back was exactly $3000.

“So I thought, OK, I’ve got $3000 to spend.”

Off to the sales Green went, without telling anyone, and found a spot high in the auditorium away from everyone else.

“I was shaking, because I’d never bid before without someone else’s backing. I put my hand up when the bidding started on Jip’s (Copy That’s) brother but no one noticed.”

So Green started frantically waving her hand around and by the time she was noticed, the bidding had risen to $3000.

“That was me done. I was in a sweat because that was my last bid. I prayed for the hammer to come down - and it did.”

Green didn’t worry about the horse being peanut-sized, both millionaire Hard Copy and Copy That, whom she also bought at bargain prices of $4000 and $7000, were small.

“Hard Copy was still in a three foot nine cover when we sold him and Copy That was a fiery little bastard.

“This horse hasn’t got the speed of his (half) brother but I still think he’ll be a nice horse. Maurice (McKendry) told me when he went out that he might try something a bit different.”

My Copy has No Added Sugar and The Big Dance covered at the finish.Driven out of the gate, McKendry pressed forward on My Copy until he found the front and dictated a liesurely speed, comfortably holding on to beat the favourite No Added Sugar by three-quarters of a length in a moderate 2:46.6, home in 58.2 and 28.

Green praised McKendry for having sussed the horse out at the workouts, discovering a couple of weeks ago that he could also perform nearer the pace.

Green is hoping she gets to hang on to My Copy for a bit longer now, Ray having got the message that she wants to race a few now.

Upset at the prospect of losing another horse, she refused to answer her phone late last year when My Copy was being vetted for sale.

“When Hard Copy was sold, I hid, not wanting to sign the papers.”

Maurice McKendry beings the big horse back to scale.Green said she was hugely relieved when My Copy’s sale fell through after a small bone chip was found in a fetlock.

The operation, and a subsequent spell of several months while recovering from a seedy toe, helped My Copy strengthen, Green said.

“His record is looking pretty good now.”

Fourth on debut, My Copy was a fast closing half-head second in his second start. In his only other race before Thursday he was checked multiple times in a run McKendry said to forget.

* The other Highview Tommy horse Green considered at the sale, named Harry Kane, was knocked down for $6500 and later sold as a nine-start maiden. He won his only race in 17 starts in July at Redcliffe in Queensland.