DUBLINER Tom Sherry enjoyed his most lucrative day in the saddle at Rosehill last Saturday landing a double and narrowly missing out in the A$7.5 million Golden Eagle.
Riding the Sacred Falls mare Icebath for trainer Brad Widdup, the pair came from near the tail to run second a short-half-head away from the winner, Colette, last season’s Australian Oaks winner.
“Massive effort again. On the quick backup. Just got held up half a stride at the top of the straight. She let down strong again,” said Sherry post-race. Despite running second connections still earned A$1.5 million.
Usurped by the James Cummings-trained mare Colette, Sherry was able to don the Godolphin blue to win the third aboard Segalas.
“That’s a big deal for me to win in these colours,” said Sherry in what was James Cummings’ 700th winner for Godolphin.
“We told him to just drop in on the fence and follow them and let him find the line,” said stable manager Darrren Beadman.
“He did and it did. We have a lot of horses with big weights and don’t often use apprentices, but he might get a few more rides for us after that.”
Capping Sherry’s stellar day was a winner for the partnership of Richard and Michael Freedman on the Excelebration gelding Elaborate.
Sherry is currently fifth on the Sydney Metropolitan jockeys’ premiership with 16 wins and leads the Apprentices’ title by six from the Roscommon-born Louise Day.
Colette goes from the Oaks to Golden Eagle
WITH a withering run down the outside, the Australian Oaks winner Colette just got the better of Icebath to land the lion’s share of the A$7.5 million Golden Eagle on Saturday.
Over 1,500 metres at set-weights for four-year-olds only, there was mild interest in the 2,400 metre Group 1 winner by Hallowed Crown who was sent out a $10 shot on her preferred soft ground.
“She is a super mare,” said trainer James Cummings. “What a wonderful performance from her to be kept fresh. We had a plan for this spring carnival, we wanted to keep the speed in her legs for the autumn carnival next year and she just freshened-up beautifully from the Epsom (sixth).”
The win was also a career-defining moment for Koby Jennings who mostly plies his trade on the provincial tracks. “Koby kept his head. I just said to him ‘listen, let the race unfold from the half-mile as if you’re in a mile-and-a-half race and she’ll eat up the ground late’. He kept his head and she just savaged the line.”
THE Hunter Valley-based Vinery Stud has secured the stud rights to the Golden Rose-Caulfield Guineas winner Ole Kirk once his racing career concludes.
“He will be a very important addition to the young, exciting stallion ranks at Vinery.
“Being by Written Tycoon, certainly the hottest stallion of the moment and an emerging sire of sires, Ole Kirk’s pedigree offers a vital outcross to the plethora of Danehill line mares in Australasia,” said Vinery’s Peter Orton.
Ole Kirk, a A$650,000 Inglis Melbourne Premier yearling is out of an unraced full-sister to Black Caviar.