Warners In Line For Breakthrough Auction Title

BILL and Jan Warner will this week fly from holidays in Townsville to be at Ipswich on Saturday night when their home bred bitch Media Rights bids to give them a well deserved victory in the Group 3 Ipswich Auction series.

It will be the fourth Auction final they have chased, being third way back in 2001 with Gally's Girl, second in 2014 with Masai Princess and unplaced in 2021 with She's So Gnarley.

“We also had Femme Jolie as a finalist in 2014,” said Bill.

The Warners have left their Thagoona property outside Ipswich under the charge of former South Aussie Kev Murnane and it is Kev who has always had faith in Media Rights (Cosmic Rumble-Lantana Lass) as her trainer.

“Kev's always had a wrap on her, but I felt she was a bit tentative when she first started racing,” said Bill. “But that has all changed in recent times.”

Media Rights swept into the final with heat and semi-final wins running 30.74 to down Series favourite Tungsten Miss by four and a half lengths on Saturday night.

Ipswich Sat Apr 9 2022
Auction Series Semi Final 1. 520m
1st – Box 1 Media Rights – Kev Murnane
2nd – Box 6 Tungsten Miss – Jedda Cutlack
3rd – Box 3 Galway Governor – Kevin Galloway
4th – Box 2 Petite Swagger – Karen Tribe
30.74 (5.41 – 13.28 – 12.05) 4 1/2 x 1 pic.twitter.com/jx6bLi7NG4

— John Brasch (@Bunny_Brasch) April 9, 2022

“She looks like she is really attacking the first turn now and racing with so much confidence,” said Bill.

“And, she's come up with box one in the final which is perfect for her.”

The Warners bred the dam Lantana Lass but sold her after breaking in to Len Antonio who put her into the Tony Brett kennel and she too made the Ipswich Auction final in 2017.

Antonio sold her as a broodbitch to John Campbell in WA who kept Lantana Lass for two years without the bitch coming on season.

“Jan and I were holidaying in WA and met John,” said Bill. “We sought him out because we knew he had Lantana Lass. Eventually he offered to sell Lantana Lass back to us.

“She came on season eight days after we had signed the deal.

“We offered the bitch back to John but he was content that the deal was done.”

Warner still rates the Jedda Cutlack-trained Tungsten Miss the hardest to beat in the final on Saturday night.

“With the amount of racing at Ipswich lately, understandably the track has had to be turned over regularly,” said Bill.

“So, it has been a bit heavier than normal. That's suited our bitch and not so much Tungsten Miss.”

Warner has respect for the other semi-final winner, Rob Jacobsen's Desley's Girl, who scored by three and a half lengths in 30.75 beating Red Buzz also from Jedda Cutlack's kennel.

“She has been a bit of a surprise packet in the series,” said Warner. “She's been racing at Bundaberg. We beat her a nose in the Auction heat, but she went to Grafton and won over 350 metres on Tuesday.

“She's going great.”

The Warners have been tripping about and been in Townsville for the past few weeks.

“We'll jump on a plane during the week and be there on Saturday night for the final,” he said. “There's no show without the punch.”

Ipswich Auction final (in box draw): 1 Media Rights, 2 Tungsten Miss, 3 Petite Swagger, 4 Desley's Girl, 5 Galway Governor, 6 Red Buzz, 7 Sushi Mango, 8 San Polo. Res: 9 Shian Ulysses, 10 Where's The Ship.