THE hot Coffey company is back on the boil.
On Saturday, trainer Austy Coffey sent horses downriver to Murray Bridge in SA and back up river to Echuca – where he struck gold with Simply Sparklez.
The day after, jockey son Harry gave up a book of rides with serious potential at Warracknabeal to take the Geelong ride on two-year-old debutante Coco Sun for the McEvoy stable, and struck gold too.
And Jane Duncan signed Nyah West’s Madison Lloyd to reprise her Swan Hill Cup Carnival ride on her four-year-old gelding The Stock Route – and it was déjà vu all over again.
Coffey Snr said his three-year-old Zebedee filly is showing some genuine potential after racking up its second win in 10 starts to take out the $27,000 Winter Blue @ Echuca 28/7 over 1000m.
Since coming back from a 17-week spell, Simply Sparklez has run a close second at the Swan Hill Cup Carnival and the win on Saturday. He thinks she is getting better with every race.
“It was a great ride by young Logan McNeil, even though he got pushed wider than we would have liked on the last bend,” Coffey said. “Once he got her balanced, he timed his run to perfection.
“We also had Shadow Chaser in the same race but it wasn’t his day.
“The win was even better, because we had to come out of the widest gate and with only a 1000m to run, there’s no time to waste finding a good spot with some cover but Logan did that.
“It was really good to get the win and the charge from Red Hawk coming along the fence made our horse, and Logan, look even better for getting up by a nose.”
Coming from gate 17, McNeil got Simply Sparklez to dazzle with some aggressive riding to pass most of the field early and get into some cover down the back straight.
As the field came off the last bend, McNeil was almost sling-shotted into the car park and could have lost contact with the track itself, but he straightened beautifully and once lined up for the run home, always looked the horse most likely.
Except Red Hawk, scorching along the running rail, simply wouldn’t go away, forcing both riders to lunge at the line so far apart not even the race caller wanted to separate them.
But the camera did, with the photo showing Sparklez had snatched victory on the line to win by a nose.
The 22-year-old was rapt with his first win for a month – he last saluted at Pakenham with Le Ferrari on May 29 – and said he had been “pretty confident” of a good run on the back of Simply Sparklez’s solid second at Swan Hill.
“I reckon I have been riding pretty well, and had come close a couple of times, as well as riding a fair few places,” McNeil said.
“From the get-go I thought we were in the mix and if he reproduced the Swan Hill form we would give it a shake.
“Halfway up the straight I was pretty sure I had them covered, but the horse on the rails also kept coming and when you are that far apart on the track it’s hard to tell who got it.”
But it wasn’t hard to tell who might have been the happiest winner of the recent racing because Jane Duncan still has a big grin fixed on her face after The Stock Route went back-to-back – the first win at his home track cup meeting and now Warracknabeal.
With Madison Lloyd in the saddle on both occasions she turned on a master class of catch me if you can on both occasions, taking over the front running as fast as possible and never letting it go.
And clearly punters weren’t as hopeful as Duncan, despite the convincing Swan Hill win (for which he paid $27.10). Because on Friday he paid a whopping $37.30 for winning the $27,000 Bart Stiles Bookmaker (2000m) by delivering an almost identical run – but increased the margin from 1.25 lengths to better than two.
“No,” Duncan laughed. “I didn’t back him, not this time and not at Swan Hill. I try not to do that any time because if I do it’s like the kiss of death.
“But mum (Fiona Matheson) did get on, both times. So she ended up having a pretty good day and enjoyed it all the more because she bred this fella and still owns a half share in him.
“It helps that both rides by Madison were so good. I nearly pulled him out of Warracknabeal when he drew the extreme outside gate but he had pulled up so well after Swan Hill, I gave it a bit of thought and decided we would go.
“It’s really hard to train back-to-back winners so I am really loving the moment but now we have to start thinking about what’s next.”
Duncan said she is not fussed about looking to town, possibly when The Valley restarts Friday night racing.
She said she would much rather keep the focus local and may even head her star to Murtoa for another 2000m start.
“I’ve always thought this one would go beyond 2000m so we will also look at some of the country cups as well, like Manangatang, and see what happens.”
Post-race at Geelong, Coffey laughed when asked if he had sacrificed four good rides at Warracknabeal to make the long haul south east for the McEvoy stable and debutante Coco Sun.
“Is that what Kel (co-trainer Kelvin McEvoy) said,” he grinned.
“But yeah, we had to choose between Warracknabeal and here, and Warracknabeal is a lot closer to Swan Hill than Geelong. But I did trial this girl the other day at Donald and really liked her, and she quickened up pretty well on what was wet ground, so it was the right time of the year for her to be in.
“Albeit today, when she had to respond under my riding, her wheels did spin a bit, but she is a nice filly that was well placed and well prepared and lucky enough I was able to get on her.
“She’s always done things with a lot of ease, Kel reckons, and I just reckon today when she got in a bit of a fight she didn’t quite know what to do.
“I always felt like I had the edge over the second horse, but we did get in a bit more of a battle, and in typical Peter Moody and Brian Higgins form, they are hard to get past.
“Lucky my filly was the better horse on the day and she will improve off having that tough run and having to learn to fight. She’ll benefit from the day.
“Her fitness was pretty good, and she was running on some testing ground out there. We wanted to run her quiet and balance up to finish down the outside but they just weren’t going quickly so I had to make a move coming down the hill earlier than we would have liked. She sustained a good solid gallop from about the 700m onwards although we didn’t want to ask that much of her – but I didn’t want those leaders to get away from me.”
