HARRY Coffey sees things in a bush racetrack that escape mere mortals and when he does he has no hesitation in backing himself to have got it right.
And he made the point – with a string of exclamation marks – at Donald on Wednesday when he all but raced Jet Jitsu through the grandstand rather than take the rails run in the $27,000 Gilchrist & Co Plate over 1204 metres.
All but last coming out of the gate on the four-year-old Ajaya gelding, Coffey and horse joined stablemate and racing debutant Joanika (with Jack Hill aboard) looking to settle and find a way back into the sprint.
As the field went into the back bend, the pair in the starry silks started to move forward but that was the end of the co-operation.
Swinging for home, Coffey decided not to take the turn with the ruck, heading towards, and then past the centre of the soft track, stopping just short of the outside fence and some concerned spectators (all leaning back just in case).
Running for trainer Andrew Bobbin for the first time, Jet Jitsu lived up to his slightly ambitious name, burning down the straight so fast the friction almost ignited the soft track.
It was a great result for connections, who had hoicked their horse and shifted it to Bobbin after six straight misses – and an even better one for any punters who held winning tickets for the $35.90 payout.
Jockey Damian Lane, on red-hot odds-on favourite Matao Ma, must still be scratching his head about how this one got away from them.
With 20m to go, Matao Ma had fought off all comers to take the lead and would be forgiven for thinking this one was in the bag. They were so far apart, it’s unlikely they even saw Coffey and Jet Jitsu blow past them on the line.
After the race, the self-deprecating Coffey agreed the horse “had done a pretty good job”.
He says Bobbin spoke to him at the trials and told him Jet Jitsu was ready to roar, and the ride was his if he wanted it.
“I said to Andrew the horse was in a good space and he had got him nice and happy,” Coffey said.
“But at this time of the year we are trialling on some pretty heavy, wet tracks and he just didn’t have the turn of foot he showed today.
“Even though it was a soft 7 here, it was not a tired soft 7, whereas some of those tracks we’re trialling on out there in the Wimmera can get pretty boggy.
“I didn’t have a lot of pressure from Andrew or the owners; there wasn’t a lot of expectation for him to be in a forward position early, they just wanted to see him run well.”
Coffey says he got a nice cart back into the race and got out wider on the track, where he says it was still pretty firm.
In the $27,000 Goldacres Handicap over 1002m, Coffey went from a rank outsider to the heavily backed favourite Miss Daniel for the Symon Wilde stable.
It opened just under $4 (in the end it paid $2.80) and was almost even money by the time they jumped.
And the lightly framed four-year-old mare jumped like a winner, grabbing the rails behind the pace.
But Coffey has a good memory and, as the whole field swung across the top of the straight like an old farmgate, he bullocked his way through the throng and this time ended up against the outside fence.
There, his plucky little horse wound up and held off the fast-finishing Disco Tilmorn and Swan Hill trainer Nathan Hobson’s Upper East Side.
Awarded ride of the day for the win, Coffey said it could have gone either way. His first winner had been in gate 13, but Miss Daniel was drawn down low at four, so Coffey again covered plenty of ground to get the run home he wanted.
“She was really up for the task, and very strong through the line. She’s a little ripper and she tries hard.
“Both wins have been first starts for new stables, so I have been a bit of a beneficiary of these changes. You’ve just got to steer them and keep everyone happy.”
