Willick scores treble
|
Alicia Willick secures a winning treble at Doomben (Noel Pascoe photo)
|
She may have a small stable of horses, but rest assured that it is no hindrance to Alicia Willick’s winning ways.
The former Taree trainer, who is now based on the Gold Coast, claimed a winning treble at Doomben on August 16.
With eight horses residing at the Willick stables, the three that returned home last Saturday as victors included Fastnstraight, Tellasecret and Gunsari.
Fastnstraight (G6 Over-Our Fonteyn) kick started the day with jockey Christian Reith guiding the gelding to his biggest career prize cheque by winning the Carlton Draught Handicap NMW 1650m.
The six-year-old left his run for the win to the last minute after sitting near last for most of the journey before storming to the front down the middle of the track to claim a half neck win over Cat Eyes (Ric McMahon). Chicken Bob (Adrian Coome) was a close head behind in third.
|
Guided by Christian Reith, Fastnstraight (outside) heads to victory (Noel Pascoe photo)
|
Willick purchased the horse from the William Inglis tried horse sale eight weeks earlier and has produced two wins from two starts so far.
“We’d seen his run at Goulburn where he ran second and we thought he’d make a potentially good country cups horse,” Willick said.
“When he won at the Coast he was so impressive so we thought since we were taking Gunsari to town we thought we would take him so Christian could ride the two of them.”
Fastnstraight’s debut win for Willick at the Gold Coast was certainly impressive with the horse winning by two and three quarters of a length.
Next to cross the line in first place for Willick was stable veteran Tellasecret (G7 Umatilla-Victoria’s Secret).
Tellasecret was able to by-pass getting tangled in a crash that saw early leader Ben Hur tear through the running rail and dislodge jockey Jason Taylor. Luckily, both escaped serious injury.
|
Bobby El-Issa secures the second win for Alicia Willick, this time it was stable veteran Tellasecret (Noel Pascoe photo)
|
Ridden by Bobby El-Issa, Tellasecret secured a three-quarter of a length victory in the Nashos Handicap 2MW 1200m ahead of Group 1 winning gelding Rockdale (Glen Colless). Friendly Embrace (Melanie Price) ran home for third a further short neck away.
“He’s a good old boy. He always pays his way. He’s so honest and tries so hard he really deserved it,” Willick said.
“We got him when he’d had four of five starts and is one of the only horses we have left that we brought up from Taree.”
Willick’s treble came with a win in the last as Gunsari (Christian Reith) led to triumph in the Lmntree International QTIS NMW Handicap 1350m.
It was the third win in a row for Gunsari (G5 Gundane-Cesari) who eased away to a one and a quarter of a length win over Tisani Boy (Glen Colless) with Deacon (Brad Pengelly) finishing a close head behind in third.
|
Christian Reith returns to scale aboard Gunsari after his second win for the day and the third for Willick (Noel Pascoe photo)
|
“We thought going into the day we had three good chances and really couldn’t separate who was the best. To actually get the three up was pretty unbelievable,” Willick said.
Willick moved to the Gold Coast two years ago after finding the travel to racedays from her New South Wales base lengthy.
“We were at Mitchells Island near Taree and it was too much travelling to Sydney. Here, we are just across the road from the Coast (racecourse) or an hour up to Brisbane.”
QUEENSLAND Racing web news: Claire Power – August 18
|
