Peter Hardacre will again cast his net interstate with exciting South Australian sprinter Press Down after his brilliant return in the Listed W H Wylie Handicap at Morphettville on the weekend.
Freshened after running down the track at Flemington as favourite in July, Press Down was forced to cover ground before powering away to give Hardacre his first black type success despite having produced almost 200 winners in a 12-year training career.
“It’s a big thrill to win a feature race at Morphettville,’’ Hardacre said.
“We’ve really backed this horse, he was obviously disappointing at Flemington but he showed he’s back to his best,’’ he said.
Hardacre said the Wylie had laid the foundation for a return to Melbourne with plenty of attractive options available to the horse through the spring.
“We’ll sit down and put a plan together, there is obviously a lot of nice races in Melbourne for him,’’ Hardacre added.
“It was the right race for him.
“We new he was fit and well it was up to him to take that next step,’’ he said.
Press Down was again ridden by Victorian jockey Neil Farley who is building a strong repour with the horse with Saturday’s feature their third win in four races together.
“He’s very talented,’’ Farley said of Press Down.
“It was a great bit of training by Pete and his team.
“He places his horses to perfection and does a great job,’’ he said.
Lachlan Neindorf had a day out with a riding treble,
The Group 1 winning hoop scored aboard Andrew’s Memory who was impressive first-up, likewise Zebella for the Philip Stokes stable before progressive four-year-old A Samurai Mind completed his big day out.
2023-24 John Letts Medallist Jake Toeroek had a riding double in combination with the Richard and Chantelle Jolly stable winning the opening race aboard debutante Sabaj before getting home short priced favourite Deepfloat Diva who made it two wins in the space of eight days.
Apprentice Caitlin Munro’s impressive run in the saddle continued at Mindarie Halidon on Sunday when she won the Cup aboard A Bit Of A Rebel for boss David Jolly.
It was a first Mindarie-Halidon Cup for Jolly and a first country cup feature for Munro.
She was also in the winner’s stall at Bordertown on Friday when Limited Risk was successful, having ridden four winners (with three seconds) from her past 10 starts.
Ivy Lam took Mindarie Halidon riding honours with a double aboard Zufasta for the Gordon Richards and Damien Moyle stable before Alaskan Storm made it a race to race double, while Teagan Voorham’s solid recent run continued with a double at Bordertown on Friday.
Voorham winning aboard Impact A Lot for Adrian McGregor before getting home Preliminaries later in the day.
