Southern Icon returns to racing
Big-race ambitions for the new season received a major boost when Southern Icon returned to racing with an emphatic win at Te Rapa on Saturday.
Trainer Alan Tait, his wife Gaylene and fellow owner Mike Collinson have always held the Australian-bred gelding in high regard.
An autumn hat-trick that extended his record to six wins from 17 starts took him through to open company and the way he dealt with his rivals on the weekend sets him up perfectly for feature races in the opening month of the new season.
Southern Icon signed off his autumn campaign with a runaway win over 1400 metres at Hastings and it was more of the same at Te Rapa as regular rider Mark Hills let him bowl along in front and never gave his rivals a look in.
At the line the combination still had four lengths to spare over the runner-up Aaja Nachle.
The performance held further merit given Southern Icon carried 58.5 kilograms and conceded 6.5kg – a full stone in the old measure – to the second placegetter.
It has long been the ambition of Southern Icon’s connections to give him a shot at a decent race, and their first chance will be the Gr. 2 Lisa Chittick Foxbridge Plate back at Te Rapa in a month’s time.
A win or placing in that $100,000 feature will set him up for the first Group One race of the new season, the Makfi Challenge Stakes at Hastings in late August.
‘‘We’ve had races like that in the back of our minds for a long time,’’ says Alan Tait.
‘‘And now that we’ve got this far it looks like we’re on target.’’
He won off a rating of 92 on Saturday and with the extra points he’ll get, he should make the cut for the Foxbridge Plate.
‘‘I know it’s weight-for- age and it will be a lot stronger field than what he’s been beating, but I think he’s earned his chance,’’ he said.
Alan admits to some nervousness going into last Saturday’s important assignment and that situation hasn’t eased given what’s ahead, but the truth is the hard-working trainer is relishing it all.
‘‘The scary thing is that he seems to have come back even better than last prep. He piled on the weight while he was out and not really knowing how fit he was going into the weekend, I never expected him to do that. ‘‘Still, it’s a lot of fun for us all. ‘‘As they say, ‘Happy wife, happy life’, so that’ll do me.’’
On the other side of the world last weekend, Matamata apprentice Anna Jones fulfilled one dream – and almost another – when she had her first race ride in England.
The 24-year- old Englishwoman is on a month’s holiday visiting family and friends and when she left she had her heart set on securing a race ride and – dream of dreams – adding to the 90 winners she has ridden during her New Zealand apprenticeship with Karen Fursdon.
Step one was gaining the mount on two-year- old first starter Spinnaker Bay, a filly owned by Anna’s first New Zealand employer, Kevin Hickman of Valachi Downs.
In the race at Newbury on Saturday morning NZT, Anna got to within half a length of a perfect result when Spinnaker Bay, a 25-to- one longshot, was run down in the final stages and crossed the line in second place.
As this article went to press, Anna was booked for another ride, the six-race winner Foie Gras, in a race at Chelmsford scheduled for the early hours of Wednesday.