HARRY Coffey’s hot streak – starting with those four wins at Caulfield – kept right on rolling along at Kyneton on Thursday.
Even better, he spread the love throughout his family, riding his father Austy’s Olivia’s Scandal to success in the $27,000 Kyneton Electrics Handicap over 1203 metres.
In charge of the horse on the day was Coffey’s cousin Jordy Coffey – Austy’s assistant trainer and a part-owner of the winner.
Talk about a family affair.
The action started in the second of the day – the $27,000 Hygain Plate over 1454m – when he saddled Andrew Bobbin’s Galpin.
“I sort of settled a fair way back, and they certainly weren’t rocking along by any means, so I was thinking ‘it could get a bit tricky, this’,” Coffey said post-race.
“And she had no cart into the race, so had to do it all on her own terms.
“So it wasn’t actually a bad win, and once she hit the front it was pretty soft late, so she might be even better over a little bit further.
“But it wasn’t a bad little win in itself after she had got back early and had no help.”
Coffey said there “was no real plan” going to the barriers.
He said Andrew Bobbin reckoned they should see how the horse jumped and play it from there.
“If there had been an opportunity for us to be more forward with cover, well I was going to take it,” Coffey said.
“But she didn’t jump well after we stood in there in the machine for so long, so I still ended up well back, although she has been racing like that anyway,” he said.
“Her run at Terang the other day was great and she is putting a consistent little record together now.”
The real high for the day was the ninth and last, when the whole family got to celebrate.
Olivia’s Scandal has now won four races in her 21-start career and it’s nearly all happened in the past 10 weeks.
The five-year-old mare broke her maiden in July last year and then took five months and nine starts to get back in the winner’s circle with a win at Wangaratta on December 7.
Now Coffey has ridden her to two more victories – at Echuca on New Year’s Eve and first up last week, back from an eight-week spell.
He said everything about his horse was good and had gone “perfectly to plan.”
Coffey also said it was so good; his kids would be getting Chinese for dinner as part of the celebrations.
“This is three wins for her in her past four starts, so she is certainly paying the wages,” he said.
Cousin Harry agreed the family’s stable seemed to have it all worked out now.
“Dad and Jord are doing a good job with her, because she’s a bit tricky, but they have got her in the zone at the moment – and she has had a bit of a gap between runs and has returned well, but I still thought she might need the run,” Harry Coffey said.
“But what do jockeys know.
“The trainers know what they’re doing, don’t they, and that’s the way it turned out.
“I am pretty sure she will be even better over 1400m, although she does have a tendency to over race and do things wrong, so the speed of a 1200m helps her, and she did have a great run in transit where it all opened up and she was still strong to the line.
“Jordy even reckons if he was 20-kilograms lighter he would be a better jockey than me.
“He is a farrier up at home and helps dad out a fair bit and he started working with dad as a kid and his brother does a fait bit with dad as well.
“So yes, it’s a family affair, and you can’t choose family can you, but no, they are all doing really well.”
Unfortunately that would be his last big smile for a few days – races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with no winners quickly reminded him racing can be a funny old game.
