WOULD Swan Hill’s Harry Coffey have been considering his options in the first at Echuca on Sunday? Absolutely.
A 1300m maiden and his horse wasn’t just stone cold last as they were let go, he all but fell out of the gate and was more than two lengths adrift before he even realised where the rest of the small field was in the $42,500 Caledonian Hotel Plate.
Is Options a horse worth following? Absolutely.
Provided it learns when the gates open, you jump as fast as you can to get the best possible spot going.
The three-year-old colt from the powerful Godolphin stud has just joined the McEvoy stable in Ballarat as part of Godolphin’s decision this season to switch to a public trainer model, with horses going to several high-profile trainers.
Immerse was their first runner in the new partnership and broke her maiden at Ballarat on Thursday.
Options was their second starter for them and was making its racing debut at Echuca on Sunday, where, despite getting just about everything wrong in the running, it still managed to win.
It was helped in part by the small field but had to do a lot of hard work to get its way from way back last to the win, with Coffey doing some serious overtime in the saddle.
Even when he started his run with less than 200m to go, Options managed to ricochet its way between two horses before breaking into the clear to win by half a length at a very well supported $3.90.
Coffey speaking post-race said despite the start he still thought, at all stages of the race, he could win.
“I had galloped him the other morning, on very soft ground at Ballarat, and he went very well,” he said.
“And even though he missed the start pretty hopelessly and didn’t get into his stride very well, because we had a small field and the leaders not being all that far away from me, I was still pretty confident.
“The biggest issue in the race, probably, was just the way he travelled, and just how green he was, made missing the start almost the easiest thing he did.
“His ability probably won us the race, and when he puts it all together he will be able to win a lot better races because he definitely shouldn’t have won today with all the things he did wrong.
“But he’s a lovely horse, beautiful style and great mover and he’s also a gentle horse – but he’s also a colt, and we know what colts can be like.”
