GOD’S OWN 2YO WINS BY A BIT

Gutsy win by God’s Own 2YO, Miss Holyfield, over 1207m at Kilmore on Saturday.
Trained by Matt Ellerton and Simon Zahra and bred and owned by Essendon Mazda’s Joe Cucuzza (pictured left with trainer Peter Boynton), Miss Holyfield is out of the Align mare, Lady Atlanta.
Miss Holyfield is one of the most inspired names for a racehorse … EVER.
You wouldn’t have needed to put a penny in the plate on Sunday to work out how Holy(field) and God’s Own go together, but that’s not the end of it … not by a long stretch.
Miss Holyfield’s dam, Lady Atlanta, is in turn a daughter of Flame of Atlanta and you may well remember that flame that lit the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games was carried at one stage by one of the city’s favourite sons in Evander Holyfield.
But wait, there’s more! A highly popular heavyweight boxing champion who won the title four times (the only boxer to do so), Holyfield won 44 times against the likes of George Foreman, Buster Douglas, Larry Holmes and, famously, Mike Tyson.
The first time they met, Holyfield knocked out Tyson in the 11th round and, in the rematch on 28 June 1997, Tyson bit off the top of Holyfield’s ear and was disqualified.
Thing is, Miss Holyfield had part of her ear bitten off as a foal by another horse and so, the name was a natural.
Doesn’t seem to have her hurt her though, given that she won at Kilmore with her – you guessed it – ear pricked!
And just to finish it all off, the second horse home was called … Apollo Creed.
For those of you who slept through the 70s, Apollo Creed was the fictional world boxing champ from Rocky I and II. Yo!