SAME COLOURS. SAME RESULT. DIFFERENT DAY

Both horse and rider are at full stretch above as they hit the line in the opening race of the day at Belmont yesterday. Jockey Willie Pike on board ALOHA SPIRIT calls on all his strength as he urges her to the line. (Photo courtesy Hollands Photographics)


Although my mates from Queensland have raced a few horses with me over the years and have enjoyed moderate success, it took until today at Belmont for them to win two in a row in town. I refer of course to my three mates in Ken Whittaker, Colin Crossley and Colin Hounsell. Ken and I go back a long way in fact all the way back to the early 90's when he raced horses such as Pushka Pushka and National Pleasure with me. Over the years we have enjoyed some nice wins with a number of different horses with CAMPOBELLO being a winner for the crew earlier this year.

When FRIDAYS GIRL won at Belmont on the weekend, she became the first leg of a winning double for the boys with ALOHA SPIRIT making up the second leg with her win at Belmont earlier today. ALOHA SPIRIT was bred by Colin Crossley from his good mare AIRLIE BIRD which won a number of races for him on Sydney tracks a few years ago.

ALOHA SPIRIT is a magnificent type of filly by Stravinsky and she has always shown above average ability in her trials and training. So much so that we all had a fairly good wager on the filly when she stepped out a couple of weeks ago, only to leave the money with the bookies after the filly missed the kick badly. The filly reared just as the gates opened throwing away any chance she had. With the benefit of some extra barrier practice and some great handling from her strapper Owen Miller at the races today, the filly seemed to have a completely different attitude as she headed to the gates.

Jockey Willie Pike was able to keep the filly out of the barriers until late and after jumping well she soon took up a position outside the leader. In a driving finish, it was ALOHA SPIRIT who stuck her head down on the line for a very courageous win, justifying our confidence in her first up but left wondering why we didn't follow up our confidence. I guess at the end of the day I wanted to see the filly do things right at the barriers before we took the plunge again. The way she won suggests that there could be more wins in store for her.