Almost one month into the new racing season and Swan Hill’s Harry Coffey is the state’s leading rider.
And Swan Hill trainer Nathan Hobson is back in the winner’s circle after a bit of a lean run stretching out six weeks.
At Echuca on Saturday, Hobson’s King and King took out the $27,000 Quest Apartments Echuca handicap over 1400m, his stable’s first win since July 17, when Upper East Side hit the line in front – also at Echuca.
Hobson picked up the six-year-old gelding for just $3000 in an online sale in January.
Since then it has won three races and banked almost $42,000 – talk about a canny purchase.
“Today was a really good ride by Bob Beattie – I thought the horse might need another run to hit some form as this was only his second start this prep,” Hobson says.
Most punters clearly agreed with Hobson, when King and King hit the line by the shortest of margins it paid $25.20 and $6.40 – like the horse itself, good money if you were on it.
“He’s won three for me now, and run a few places, so he doesn’t owe me anything,” Hobson added.
He was also 100 per cent right about the Beattie ride – the veteran hoop kept the horse under cover for much of the trip then seized on a gap late to shift into the clear and then hold off the fast-finishing favourite Fast Poppy.
“I am not really locked in on what we do next with him, but I have had an eye on the Pooncarie Cup and it would suit this fella,” he said.
It might have been a quiet few weeks for the trainer, but he has his sights firmly set on a successful spring. On Friday he put nine horses through trials and was pretty happy with the outcomes.
“I have 25 horses in work at the moment and my trials showed plenty of potential,” he said. “I was particularly happy with Soldier of Love, another horse I picked up at the start of the year.
“He hadn’t done much to impress me but on Friday he looked in much better shape and I am hopeful he will be turning the corner very soon.”
Yulong Storm, the stable star, is now out for eight weeks in the paddock before getting onto the water walker and being brought up to top condition for his next start in the New Year.
If Hobson is running back into form, Coffey quite simply is running red hot, with 12 winners as of Saturday night and the lead in the Victorian jockeys’ premiership – both in the overall and provincial categories.
Ever the realist, Coffey knows it is about to become a supply and demand issue, with more jockeys than horses as the spring classics start coming online.
In the meantime, he is trying to make every post a winner – and doing it with style.
On Saturday at The Valley he picked up the $130,000 Ladbrokes Yard Comments over 2500m with Duke of Hastings, a brilliant back-up for his Geelong win with Naval Aviator on Friday and his pick-up win the Dancethenightaway at Ballarat on Tuesday.
“Today we had a lovely run, did no work and the horse was just too good,” Coffey said, after he caught everyone’s eye by “having a bit of banter with the chief steward post-race, letting him know to look at the lighter side of life”.
“I think it’s a bit of a mixture, of the race being well run to suit him, they went a long at a nice gallop and he’s a big strong horse, who’s got really nice staying potential,” he said.
“So that was one thing that aided him, but also, it’s just taken him a little while to get warm this prep. His last run looked as though he might be working towards a win and that was definitely the case.
“We went up 500m in distance and we still got the job done, so really well done by the stable you know, because sometimes horses that are staying three-year-olds do battle to come back and find form.
“And it looked like for a while that would be the case with this horse but I think now he has had today’s win he will really get a lot of it from the confidence point of view. And it’s a nice time of year for a stayer to be around.”
Coffey said while the field was rolling along, he still knew two of the better front-running riders were out there in Craig Williams and Jordie Childs, so even though it was a string gallop you know they are going to get their fractions right at some stage.
“That happened in the middle stages and then everybody left the fence and left a beautiful run for me to go through,” Coffey added.
“I couldn’t have asked for a smoother run in transit, and that’s why he won so well.”
