SHE’S A PEACH

OK, we’re mixing genders, but the quote ‘Go West, young man’ certainly hit home for Bel Esprit 3YO, Peach Tree, who scored a gutsy dead heat victory over 1100m at Ascot on Saturday (27 March).
Peach Tree – yes, she’s a filly – had raced on five occasions for Peter Moody in this neck of the woods, but sadly without cracking it for a win (she did, however, manage four placings from five starts).
Anyhow, a change of pace appears to have worked wonders for the gal and, in her first outing for Mark Read, flew home with a wet sail to grab Valoura right on the wire. Judges couldn’t separate the pair and Mark was adamant that Peach Tree would have won with another stride.
Bred by Baree Stud and sold for $75,000 as a yearling at the 2008 Inglis Melbourne Premier, Peach Tree is out of the Naturalism mare, Georgia, a winning half sister to Melbourne Group winner Painted Ocean. This is also the family of Group One winners Triscay, La Baraka, Defier and Demerger.



Hoofnote: Probably has nothing whatsoever with Peach Tree’s moniker, but ‘Georgia Peach’ was the nickname of Ty Cobb, one of the most famous baseball players of all time.
Although he retired at the end of the 1928 season, he held 90 Major League baseball records – some which stand today, including the highest batting average and most career batting titles. Until 2001 he had played the most games too (3,035).
Seems though that ol’ Ty was a bit of a nutter and deemed by a newspaper at the time to be “daring to the point of dementia”.
He once beat his son with a whip when he dropped out of Princeton and was roundly disliked by teammates and opposition alike.
During his first season of pro ball, his mother shot and killed his father. Evidently William Cobb suspected Mrs Cobb of fooling around and sneaking up to the window to try and catch her in the act, Ty’s mum put one straight between the eyes, thinking he was an intruder.

“The base paths belonged to me … the runner. The rules gave me the right. I always went into a bag full speed, feet first. I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his fault.”

“When I began playing the game, baseball was about as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch.”