Dane River's stocks are inflating
By Glenn Lester of The Age 21/10/02

He's bred in the purple, being a three-quarter brother to Nothin' Leica Dane, but was once described as going "like he has four flat tyres". Not any more; Dane River may soon be ready to jump in the deep end.

The lightly raced Dane River continued the winning run of trainer Brian Mayfield-Smith, who took over the horse's training some six starts ago, by romping in with the $103,000 Seymour Cup yesterday.

Mayfield-Smith, who landed a double at Caulfield on Saturday to take his city record to 12 wins from 46 starters this season, was confident Dane River was a class above his rivals in yesterday's listed race, and he may soon be able to lift the bar to group level.

The five-year-old is by Danehill out of the Star Watch mare Star Of Light, who is a half-sister to the derby-winning Nothin' Leica Dane. After events at Caulfield the previous day, it was therefore topical that Dane River won yesterday.

Nothin' Leica Dane was all the talk after the Gai Waterhouse-trained Platinum Scissors had won the Norman Robinson Stakes. Nothin' Leica Dane, who was also prepared by Waterhouse, won the Norman Robinson in 1995, then took the Victoria Derby and was second in the Melbourne Cup. There is talk Platinum Scissors may follow a similar path.

Dane River seems destined for bigger things himself after Danny Nikolic took him to the front soon after the start yesterday, then held the running to win by almost three lengths in a slick one minute 34.38 seconds for the 1600 metres.

Mayfield-Smith has said that Dane River reminds him of one of his former favourites, The Collector, with his free-flowing style. But there must have been a time when he wondered about Dane River's prospects.

The gelding had his share of problems before Mayfield-Smith took him over. Apparently, he had broken his pelvis and had leg problems. In fact, when the trainer went to Kelvin Bourke's spelling property to take charge of Dane River, Bourke told him: "Gee, this will test you out; it goes like it's got four flat tyres."