By Andrew Mole
Well, you’d be pretty ticked off if you hadn’t ticked this three-year-old colt making his first start at Mildura on Tuesday.
Because he did everything right from the second the starter let them go – and saved his best for a grandstand finish.
Apart from the Coffey & Co partnership being a big pointer to success, the only form Foster Street took to the track was a sixth in a Tatura trial back on September 20.
Yet the combination was enough to see its starting price almost halved – from $11 into $6.50 at the barrier.
And 15 days later he had come on in leaps and bounds; and as they jumped, Foster Street was in a line of six before Coffey Junior eased him back onto the rail in third, getting good cover and an easy ride on a long rein – with little risk of interference for the only first-timer in a maiden full of wannabe winners.
The leaders were going lickety-split but as Harry and horse swung into the home straight, their bid for glory nearly ended in the carpark as the pacesetter, He’s God’s Gift forgot to turn; and started cutting straight across the track, with Foster Street left with no choice but to go even wider or start playing dodgem cars.
But neither horse nor jockey panicked and when His God’s Gift finally went straight (down the straight) the debutant streeted him, running away to win by a length after covering about 1106m instead of the official 1000m in the $25,000 Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour Plate.
It was a ride sufficiently convincing enough to suggest the Coffey stable might have some serious potential on their hands.
Post-race, Coffey Snr said the colt had been showing promise at home, especially in short gallops compared with the other maidens in the stable.
He said “just getting it right” was one of his main concerns going into the race.
“And he probably still overdid it a little at times – he probably would have benefited out of another trial; but we thought coming here for this race would also work,” Austy said
“He did put down a nice little dash to the line, you know he might be alright.”
Harry Coffey described Foster Street as a “pretty forward going horse who has always been in the bridle and wanting to get on with it”.
He said in a couple of trials, the colt had been in a bit of a rush.
“I reckon he’s just been a bit brilliant for trials where the tempo is different from race day and dad actually wanted to give him another jump-out; but I told him I thought he would benefit more from a day at the races,” Harry said.
“And we saw this 1000m maiden here and it looked pretty weak, and I said he would do better going for a run here than just going for another jump-out.
“And he’s won, but it is hard when they win their first start and they go up highly in the ratings, he probably won’t benefit from that.”
Harry said Foster Street will now be up against 64 horses in his races, and he’s not ready for that “so he might get a bit lost from now”.
“But down the track, when he knows what’s going on; there’ll definitely be more wins for him,” he said.
“He’ll certainly do better on a track with a bit more give, so maybe in the winter we will see a better horse.”
The Coffey boys and their new boy also got in the way of a hot training performance from Patrick Payne, who took out races one and two and then backed up with a third win in race four.
Kim Talent then landed his own back-to-back double, winning races five and six.
Not to be outdone, jockey Will Gordon landed a treble of his own, while Christine Puls got the ride on both of Talent’s winners for an excellent day out.
