Casey’s magic touch
WHEN King Island Racing Club’s clerk of the course Casey Hyde purchased a galloper from an online bloodstock site last year, she was hoping the mare would win a race for her and her mother Ailean Hyde.
On Monday, Cianna delivered a sensational performance to win the King Island Cup over 1800m to make it back-to-back wins, after an equally impressive triumph in a maiden on Boxing Day.
Cianna ($4) was listed as an emergency for the Cup and only made it into the final field courtesy of a scratching.
But Victorian-based jockey Jamie Gibbon rode the mare like she was an odds-on favourite and when he called on her in the home straight, the daughter of Reset lengthened stride and went on to win by more than four lengths.
It was a great thrill for the mother and daughter owners, who forked out $5700 for Cianna online, and then spent a small fortune rehabilitating the mare.
“When Cianna arrived, she was more developed on one side and further inspection revealed she had an issue with her hip, so we had to devise a special rehabilitation program for her and we turned to dressage work to build up muscle,” Casey Hyde said.
“The more I worked with the mare the more I fell in love with her, and when she finishes racing she has a life with me as my leisure horse.
“Winning the Cup was an amazing thrill for me and Mum and all the whole family celebrated big time.”
Casey also acts as the KIRC clerk of the course and with a background of almost three decades of riding horses, she is well qualified.
“I was born on the island and all of us kids had a pony when we were little, so that was just the way of life on the island,’’ she said.
“We went through pony club together and we’d have trail rides every weekend and during school holidays. Horses are a big part of our lives.”
When Cianna arrived on King Island, the mare had a few structural issues that required immediate attention.
That’s when 35-year-old Casey, the mare’s trainer Ian Johnson and local vet John Cleland collaborated to try to rehabilitate the then fiveyear-old.
Johnson, 67, has trained on and off for more than three decades since moving to King Island from a little town named Boranor (population of about 50), not far from Orange in central NSW.
“There has been an enormous amount of care gone into Cianna by Casey and the local vet, and it is a credit to them for being so caring and patient,” Johnson said.
“A lot of dressage work helped build up muscle where it needed to be improved and once that was achieved, we set about developing a training program that would fit.
“Casey has to take a lot of the credit for Cianna getting back to racing and winning.”