RUGBY fans all across Australia are excited about the British and Irish Lions' tour of the country, but for a group of blokes with a passion for rugby the tour kicked off well at - of all places - Dubbo Paceway.
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While the Lions were battling Queensland at Suncorp Stadium, the Greg Rue-trained Parc Des Princes was winning the fifth race of his career when he took out the Daily Liberal Pace (2120m).
Named after a French rugby and soccer stadium Parc Des Princes is the latest in a long line of well-named horses bred by Gavin Cook, Julian Linden and Damien Kennedy.
The trio's first foray into breeding with their mare Lips To Kiss resulted in Twickenham, named after the legendary home of English rugby.
The gelding raced 106 times for 23 wins and almost $100,000 in prize money.
After Twickenham came Cardiff Arms in honour of the home of Welsh rugby, then Murrayfield in honour of the great Scottish stadium and finally Parc Des Princes.
The group also has two young fillies out of the mare which are yet to race and are currently unnamed.
On Saturday Parc Des Princes ($2.70 fav) showed he is a gelding with a bit of ability as he overcame a slow tempo to win with authority.
Starting from barrier 10, driver Trent Rue elected to go back on the four-year-old son of American stallion Art Major, and in the early stages he sat third last.
Up front An Ace To Keep ($4.90, John O'Shea) was able to find the front and when the field cruised through the first half of the last mile in sections of 31.5s and 32.1s those at the back were going to need a little bit of luck.
Rue got that when he was able to get onto the back of Ohoka Rio ($45.40, Kel Winnell) just prior to the bell and while he only got a trail until the field was going up the back straight it was sufficient to have him close enough to unleash a good turn of foot and take the lead by the time the field rounded the home turn.
In the straight Parc Des Princes had enough in reserve to hold off Bunyarra Raider ($8.40, Peter Missen) and Jimmyhanover ($12.40, Madison Reynolds).
"It was a good win because he didn't really have much go his way and he had to work hard to get into the race," Rue said.
"When I asked him to go he accelerated pretty quickly and I thought I might have got to the front a bit soon but he kicked on strongly.
"Gavin, Julian and Damien have had a bit of success with the horses out of this family and I think he'll be able to go on and probably win a few more races for them.
"All their horses are named after stadiums and they all race in their green and gold colours. It's a bit of fun for the boys and they enjoy it."
