PRODUCTIVE CREW CLEAN UP AGAIN
OWNERS, TRAINER KEEP GOOD TIMES GOING
THE prolific production line operated by owners Frank and Christine Cook and trainer Helen Page shows no signs of slowing.
Reindeer Moon, an easy Gold Coast winner on Saturday, is the latest horse to emerge for the trio, whose partnership goes back two decades.
Having just her second start, Reindeer Moon ($4.40) led for most of the way to score by 4¼ lengths in the QTIS 3YO Maiden Plate (1100m) on Saturday.
Page was always confident the filly would run well after she finished fifth in a strong Doomben fillies maiden on debut in January.
She instructed jockey Micheal Hellyer to ride the filly forward on Saturday to keep her out of trouble in a largely inexperienced field but even Page was surprised by the ease in which she led and cruised away.
Page and the Cooks bought Reindeer Moon for $55,000 at the 2016 Magic Millions yearling sales with the plan to form a syndicate that would chase the 2017 Magic Millions 2YO Classic women’s bonus.
As fate would have it, just two days after Reindeer Moon went through the sales ring a Christine Cook-led syndicate won the $325,000 women’s bonus when their Matthew Smith-trained Faraway Town finished sixth in the 2016 Classic.
However, the plans for a second successive women’s bonus win with Reindeer Moon did not get off the ground.
“She was never going to be an early two-year-old,” Page said. “She started to grow and change shape and needed time, so we did that and had patience.”
That patience was rewarded on Saturday when Reindeer Moon won more in QTIS bonuses than she did in prizemoney. The filly won $12,750 in QTIS bonuses, compared with the $9750 first prize.
Page is now chasing more prizemoney in the hope of qualifying Reindeer Moon for three-year-old races over the Queensland winter carnival.
Big-race success is not foreign to the Page-Cook combination.
They won the $1 million Golden Rose Stakes in Sydney with Doonan in 2004.
“I’ve been training for them for about 20 years and I’ve had a lot of success for them,” Page said.
“We have always managed to have a bit of fun on the way and had some good horses.”
Page said she and the Cooks would confer before buying a horse together.
“They were with me when we chose her,” Page said of Reindeer Moon.
“We always choose them together and then we syndicate them or do what we want afterwards.
“They’re wonderful people to train for and great friends.”
The Cooks have about 10 horses in the Page stable, with their ownership ranging from 70 per cent of a horse down to 5 per cent.
In a successful day for the Cooks, Faraway Town won the Group 3 Triscay Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.