Rachel King made Thursday’s Wyong meeting her own with a winning treble, and in all three cases she went where other riders did not want to go and stayed on the fence.
While other riders were tracking wide King was saving ground by following the rail and her tactics proved to be the right ones.
King won the HMA Group Maiden (1600m) on the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Frenzied; the HMA Materials Handling Metro and Provincial Maiden (1100m) on Gorgons for Godolphin and James Cummings and the HMA Geotechnical Class Two (1350m) on One Of The Kind for Randwick trainer Robert Pearce.
King’s tactics were applauded by Pearce.
“My horse covets the rail and always does his best when on the fence,” Pearce said.
“The horse is a six-year-old but he has only had a handful of starts for three wins.
“He is no world beater but I guess you could call him a late bloomer.”
King let One Of The Kind ($10) settle in third place behind Celer (Serg Lisnyy) and when that horse drifted away from the fence she went underneath him and gradually wore him down to win by a long neck with the favourite Apollo Prince ($2.50) a further one and quarter lengths away third.
It was King’s first treble since Randwick in October last year when she caped a big day by winning the Group Three Nivison on Resin for Godolphin.
***
A clever ride from King contributed to the win by Frenzied.
King took off at the 800 metres to get past the tearaway leader Georgina Gold (Mitchell Bell) and held an advantage of several lengths at the top of the straight.
She kicked away to score by two and a quarter-lengths from Lady Legend and left many punters cheering.
Frenzied was backed in late from $5 to $4.60 while the favourite Royal Captain (James Innes Jnr) drifted from $2.30 to $2.70 and after being well back early, ran on fairly for third.
“The ride won us the race,” the stable’s representative, Neil Paine, said.
“Once he had that lead at the top of the short straight I thought he would win.
“I would have been disappointed if he hadn’t.
“He has always indicated to us that he would need ground and I imagine Gai and Adrian will step him up to 2000 metres.”
***
King turned in another clever ride when she won the HMA Materials Handling Metro and Provincial Maiden (1100m) on Gorgons for Godolphin and James Cummings.
While the remainder of the riders elected to go wide on the turn King stayed on the fence and got a dream passage to go to the lead and hold off the well supported first starter Ziedrich (Mitchell Bell) and win by three quarters of a length.
The favourite In Vinciano, backed in from $2.90 to start at $2.60, was the widest runner on the turn and finished third, another half head away.
Gorgons was having only her third start and the win followed a luckless third at Hawkesbury at her previous run.
“She did not have a lot of luck at her previous run, she displaced a tooth and was running on nerves,” stable representative, Darren Beadman, said.
King said that Gorgons had still not properly settled in the race.
“Once she learns how to settle she will be a nice filly,” King said.
***
Cleverly, cleverly ridden by Koby Jennings, might be headed for the breeding barn sooner rather than later following her narrow win in the HMA Instrumentation Maiden (2100m).
The imported Irish bred mare, trained by Team Hawkes, is raced by well know breeder Grant Briscoe.
“She did not do much in her few starts in Britain but we bought her because of her blood lines,” Briscoe said.
“She is by Mastercraftsman and we want to breed a stayer.
“We are breeders and sellers but we might keep whatever she produces and have a bit of fun with it.”
Jennings positioned Cleverly on the back of the favourite Dashing Special then took off to chase the leader Boomerang, grabbing that horse late to beat him by a short neck.
***
A late flood of money for the Mark Newnham trained Go Fish Go (Josh Parr) proved to be on the money when the three-year-old won the HMA Power Generation Maiden (150m).
Parr admitted he changed tactics soon after the start and elected to take a trail rather than lead.
“There was good speed on in the first 200 metres and he settled well so I decided to stay where I was,” he said.
“I was riding for luck but it went my way on the turn and I got the run I wanted.”
Go Fish Go went past Scepter Of Power in the straight to beat that horse by three quarters of a length.
The win followed a debut fifth over 1100 metres at Hawkesbury last month.
“He had to go hard in that race to lead and it was a good run,” foreman, James Ponsonby, said.
“Mark got stuck into him with plenty of work and he certainly paraded well before this race.
“Mark wanted Josh to settle him where he was comfortable.”
Go Fish go was the only horse punters wanted to back, firming from $4.80 to $4 while the favourite Foxborough eased from $1.55 to $1.70 and struggled to run third after being taken wide in the straight.
***
The Richard Freedman trained Leardo (Keegan Latham) survived a protest after a tight photo finish to win the HMA Flow And Industrial Class One (1600m).
Serg Lisnyy, who ran second on the Kim Waugh trained Seeingisbelieving, fired in an objection alleging interference in the closing stages of the race.
The two horses raced tight near the line with Leardo winning by a short half head with the third placed Lily Astolat a further head away.
Stewards took some time before dismissing the protest.
Freedman’s son Will said the big striding Leardo was not really suited to Wyong.
“However, the programming left us with no option,” Freedman said.
“That was a lovely ride from Keegan, that won us the race.
“He is a horse that will be seen at his best on a big track from 1800 metres to 2000 metres.”
Latham was eventually able to settle Leardo ($5.50) in fourth place on the fence, went around only one horse at the top of the straight then dug deep to hold off the late challenge from Seeinbgisbelieving ($2.30 fav).
***
Apprentice Reece Jones landed his first provincial winner when he led all the way on the Paul Perry trained Quick Nick in the HMA Wear Solutions Benchmark 64 (1200m).
Jones only started riding in August last year and booted home his first winner at his first ride at Tamworth at 22 years of age.
Since then the mature age apprentice has improved rapidly with Wyong was his 30th winner.
Quick Nick was well backed from $4.60 into $3.10 and had to work hard in the second half of the race as Andrew Gibbons ranged up on his outside on Sniponet to lay down a challenge.
Despite desperate riding from Gibbons he could not bridge the gap and Quick Nick, with Jones showing maturity in the saddle beyond his experience, held on to win by half a neck.
Jones remained calm and simply rode Quick Nick hands and heels to the line.
Stable foreman Mike Rowland said that was the only way to ride Quick Nick.
“He loves to be left alone in front,” Rowland said.
“The wet track at Muswellbrook did not suit him when he ran last but he loved the good track here today.
“He had a freshen up after Muswellbrook and a trial and today it was catch me if you can.”
***
Warwick Farm trainer Jarrod Austin set Inanup for the HMA GTech Cyclones Benchmark 64 (1100m) after the horse returned from a spell and the horse not only won for connections but ran a class record.
All four of the horse’s wins have been at Wyong and, in fact, the horse is unbeaten at the track.
He was having his first start since December and after a third in a trial at Warwick Farm last month.
“He loves this track and that’s why we set him for this race,” Austin said.
‘He loves racing here and he loves racing fresh.
“I thought we had him spot on but I was a bit worried in the straight.”
Inanup ($2.50 fav) and Great Affair (Mitchell Bell) settled down to a two-horse battle but in the last 200 metres Inanup gradually got the upper hand to win by half a length in 1min 03.57secs to easily eclipse the previous class record of 1min 04.34secs.
