JAKE Hull was kicking himself!
He trained the longest-priced winner of his fledgling career at Newcastle today with $91 bolter Plussey (Jenny Duggan) – and she went around with his best wishes, but alas no financial support.
Having her sixth career start and first for Gosford-based Hull, the four-year-old Pluck mare overpowered her female rivals to defeat Scholl Deep ($13) and She’s Got Teeth ($9) in the Maiden Plate (1200m).
Plussey had incurred a mandatory three months’ ban from racing when she bled from both nostrils at her previous start at Taree on December 18 last year.
“She spent a couple of months in a paddock before joining our team at Feale Park at Somersby, and her two recent trials were really good,” Hull said en route home.
“I was quite impressed with what she was doing, and mentioned to Damien Lane (Wyong trainer) in the yard before the race that I thought she would run well.
“When I looked up and saw she was $81, I thought someone must know something better than myself, and didn’t have a cent on her.
“I’m kicking myself, but it was great to see her win.”
Former jockey Hull is making a real fist of his new training venture. Plussey was his eighth winner in his debut season, and he didn’t have his first runner until October 19 when Rejinsky ran fifth in a midweek Warwick Farm race.
Goofy Mick’s $14 Taree victory on December 18 in a Benchmark 66 Handicap was his first winner with only his fourth starter. Ironically, it was the race after Plussey bled at that meeting.
“Things are going well, and I’m very fortunate to have such great staff supporting me,” Hull said.
He almost clinched a Newcastle double today, as lightly-raced three-year-old Externus ($3), who lost his near fore plate in running, was narrowly beaten by Wyong trainer Kristen Buchanan’s Broadway Bouncer ($1.90 favorite) in the CG&E Maiden Plate (1200m).
“Externus is a really nice horse, but still green and doing a few things wrong,” Hull said.
The Pariah gelding is out of the Encosta De Lago mare Vocabulary, who won five races and was twice runner-up in Group 1s at Caulfield in February 2004; the first behind the champion Lonhro in the Orr Stakes (1400m), and the second behind Reset in the Futurity Stakes (1400m).
Hull also had a placegetter (Mrs Bigglesworth) at today’s Bathurst meeting, and is off to Canterbury tomorrow to start 61kg topweight Rhythmic Pulse (Mitchell Bell) in the Benchmark 72 Handicap (1250m).
“He might be rising eight years of age, but is going as well as ever,” he said.
Rhythmic Pulse holds a special place in the trainer’s heart as he provided him with a city breakthrough at $41 on the Kensington track in May.
. It was a day for roughies at Broadmeadow, with Newcastle owner-trainer Micheal Rinkin landing the Benchmark 58 Handicap (1200m) with $101 shot Movin’ Denman, ridden by Serg Lisnyy.
Rinkin and his wife Gina bought the Denman four-year-old for $6000 as a yearling at the Gold Coast in 2020.
This is only Rinkin’s second season of training, and the gelding was his second winner.
Lisnyy also partnered his first winner Tough Case, at Muswellbrook in March last year.
When questioned by RacingNSW stewards about Movin’ Denman’s improvement on his previous performance when 13th of 14 at Scone 11 days ago, Rinkin said the gelding raced too keenly in the lead over 1400m.
He dropped him back in distance, and considered he was better suited ridden more conservatively with a genuine tempo.
Rinkin also added he had altered his training methods with Movin’ Denman, and felt this had benefited him.
Internationally successful Newcastle trainer Paul Perry also was a winner at the meeting, taking the Class 1 Handicap (1200m) with Menari three-year-old See You Again ($3.70).
Hawkesbury trainer John Higgins almost pulled off a Bathurst upset when his $151 bolter Zillions led before finishing second in the Maiden Handicap (1100m).
*Words John Curtis, July 25, 2023 - Pics Bradley Photos*
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