HEAVENS above, it was Oceans Above – with Harry Coffey back in the saddle and back in business – taking out the $150,000 Cameron Ryan Plate (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday.
But as happy as he was with the win, Coffey admitted post-race that since the birth of his son Thomas Anton on May 1 he had found it a bit harder to get to the track, keen to spend more time at home.
“I’ve been home a fair bit, which is really good, and I am rapt in Tayla and Thomas, they’re doing a great job, and it’s a bit harder to get to work right now,” he grinned.
“Because he was expected to land when he did I had given the Warrnambool carnival a pass as I didn’t want to miss anything.
“We had been playing the waiting game, so I haven’t been doing a lot of riding lately.”
However, his break from the track took none of the polish off his performance, which was classic Coffey, judging a blistering run from the back end of the field to perfection, catching Linda Meech on Simeon at top speed to win by 0.4 lengths.
“It’s a big track and we got a nice run in a bit of a muddling race, and we were just wide with a little bit of cover and a sort of smooth setup. That really allowed him to let it rip when it counted,” Coffey said.
“He’s got a nice turn of foot and he showed that today.
“And he’s actually a horse that, having had a ride on him, I really benefited from.
“Because at Sandown he was really in amongst them, and on and off the bridle the whole way, whereas today we had that bit of room and I was able to keep that rhythm and build.”
Coffey said that even though he’s a smaller horse, Oceans Above really benefitted from rhythm.
He said in a couple of the three-year-old gelding’s races he had “sort of run in restricted room and is a little bit unsure about it all”.
“So today he got the right scenario and his turn of foot really showed and he got the job done,” Coffey said.
Oceans Above trainer Simon Zahra said the stable had been unable to find the right mile race for the horse.
“I said to the crew the other day, after we were a bit flattened by his Sandown run, we will be at Flemington in two weeks and we will win there,” Zahra said, agreeing with Coffey the horse was still raw – but had a lot of potential.
Thomas Anton Coffey is likely to make his racetrack debut at the Swan Hill Cup carnival, which kicks off on June 9.
