I notice William Pike has flown to Melbourne for two rids on Bendigo cup day rather than riding a book of rides in Perth.
He rode a second and the winner of the Bendigo cup. a good days work from the wizard from the west as they were calling him on the call today
I notice William Pike has flown to Melbourne for two rids on Bendigo cup day rather than riding a book of rides in Perth.
He rode a second and the winner of the Bendigo cup. a good days work from the wizard from the west as they were calling him on the call today
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Willie “The Wizard” Pike didnt leave Bendigo empty handed either PH as he did a hit and run raid there and took home the Bendigo Cup!
It could be argued that 3 of the best jockeys currently in Oz are West Aussies- Pike, Lane & Oliver!
Bad luck for WA’s Damian Lane missing out on winning the “Grand Slam” in Australian racing (Golden Slipper, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate & Melbourne Cup) in the 1 year but at least it was good to see Vow And Declare one of the only 2 Australian bred horses (Youngstar the other) of the field of 24 getting up to win the Melbourne Cup at Flemington today.
Have to say BH I followed your mantra mate and stayed local…got lucky with Vow and Declare…not so with Youngster tho…great to see an Aussie horse trump the foreigners…anyone else back the winner?
Gatting back and in a big race this weekend … McAuliffe declaring stable mate Velvet King is better than Gatting right now. Should be a good race.
Who wins and why?
Just missed the trifecta unfortunately Freeze, I dare say probably a rare Australian bred winner for a while (last one 10 years previous to this year) as we are more inclined to breed sprinters/middle distance horses due to the quicker return on investment and more races available rather than the old fashioned stayers who are usually older type horses with plenty of miles on the clock so to speak.
Aachernar Star caught my eye last start but the public sentiment will be for Gatting no doubt with his large mass of owners.
Great day for the WA horses (trainer, jockeys, owners) at Flemington yesterday with Cosmic Crusader winning the time honoured Cox Plate with Willie Pike on board and also Smooth Chino winning the McEwen Stakes for trainer Indi Weinert & jockey Austin Galati.
A nice little double for those who like a punt on the locals racing over east!
Usually Bruce McAvaney is pretty good with his stats but he made a blew yesterday when he said Willie Pike was the first West Aussie jockey to win the Cox Plate.
WA lads Damian Oliver (twice- 1997 Dane Ripper & 2001 on the great WA horse Northerly), Damian Lane (2019) & Frank Tiger Moore (1962 on WA champ Aquanita) were ALSO previous winners!
Well done Will* for yesterday’s great run.
Just wish he’d ride home the local Favourite home,more often on Wednesday and Saturday’s 6th more often!
bruce never gets anything wrong: he said first WA BASED jockey.
Olly and Lane (Moore before my time) were riding in Victoria when they won
Not sure if it was Bruce or another commentator BH but I heard the words first WA “based” jockey.
Love that he drifted out to as much as $9.50 for the win. Clear bias of eastern states horses his run in the Caufield Cup was full of merit was going as strong as any of them when they hit the line not far away in 4th. Just annoyed I didn’t have a good chunk of fifties on him.
He’s been the horse of the spring probably just edges out Tempted. Great day for WA racing. Congrats to Bob Peters been knocking on door of the big ones for a while over east not easy to take your horses over there. And Pikey of course he fully deserved it.
Frank Tiger Moore was WA “based”!
He also fully deserves to Win Race 6 at Ascot and Belmont,every Wednesday and Saturdays,but…
