When it rains, it pours – and while there has been a lot of rain about recently, the stable is enjoying a fruitful Autumn with eight wins in the past few weeks.
On Sunday at our home ground of Ballarat, it was great to have ACCORDINGLY return to the races as a winner first up.
A four-year-old daughter of Ocean Park, Accordingly was a horse Nigel selected and paid $40,000 for at the 2017 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale (from the draft of Henley Park). Nigel and clients were prepared to overlook the likelihood she would take a little time to mature, preferring to picture her as a maturing three and four-year-old with quality. That prediction looks like it is proving accurate.
With a great ride and favourable conditions, Accordingly was remarkably brave in winning. She settled beautifully under a balanced Michael Dee, but was pushed wide on the turn and had to circle the entire field. Even as her closest rival approached her hindquarter, she seemed to find more – suggesting there is plenty yet to come this campaign.
We were confident Accordingly would run well. While she was first up over 1600m, with two trials and plenty of work at home there was a lot of fitness under her belt.
She has come back as a stronger and more mature mare after learning her craft through her previous preparations. It is great to see results come for patient owners with hopefully more to come.
One great benefit of the Ballarat training complex is the ability to add variety to horses work and the fitness benefits they can receive. Doing pace work with Accordingly up the hill track increases the volume and workload without the horse feeling the effects. The variety is beneficial and allows for a better grounding, which we saw on Sunday.
Nigel reports that it does remind him of being back in England with the way we are able to work the horses, and there is evidence the horses are enjoying it.
Horses don’t come more honest than SAILORS FALLS. It was very pleasing to take him to Swan Hill and get another win, his second in three starts and the sixth of his career.
The affinity with Jarrod Fry is outstanding. Jarrod gets the most out of the son of Reset and seems to relish partnering Sailors Falls over these distance races.
It’s great for a his passionate owner Paul Cochrane and the Cochrane family to race such a ripper of a horse. Paul bred the horse and puts immense thought into the matings. There should still be another few races, and hopefully wins, for him through the winter.
This win took Sailors Falls’ earnings above $100,000. He is now also a track record holder as today’s win was the first 2400m race at Swan Hill after the construction of a new chute for races of that distance there! He is tough and consistent, and it is rewarding to see him consistently win races. Have a look at how he stretches out in the closing stages – he loves getting out there and competing.
Success for the stable is best shared. And while it is tough to share at the moment with owners not in attendance, it is great to have people following the stable especially with a few winners flowing in.
Five of the last eight runners have been winners, and eight of the last 22 (since 1-April). Nigel and Susanna, along with Assistant Trainer Kasey Loftus, purposefully targeted this late Autumn and Winter period for the bulk of the stable, and the rewards are showing. Such results come from the hard work of every team member – riders, ground staff, vets, farriers – and of course the support of owners. A stable in form is a team and we definitely feel like one at the moment. A great thank you is appropriate to all those behind the scenes.