Champion rider Luke Nolen chalked up one of the easiest victories in the history of South Australia’s premier sprint, The Goodwood, when he guided the brilliant unbeaten Black Caviar to a bloodless triumph in 2012 at the great mare’s last start before she headed off to that heart stopping win at Royal Ascot.
On Saturday he achieved a rather more hard earned win in the storied event when he piloted the former Kiwi Desert Lightning to victory in a driving finish to the $1m million group 1 contest, one of the highlights of the SA racing year.
Nolen prevailed in a head bobbing finale over the fast finishing three year old Extragalactic, ridden by apprentice Luke Cartwright, and the Team Hawkes trained Grand Larceny, partnered by Ben Melham.
The Black Caviar connection was to the fore at Morphetville on the last day of the SA carnival as Neil Werrett, one of the champion’s owners, was also in attendance to watch his three year old filly Naifah land the group 3 Proud Miss Stakes under Zac Lloyd, that sprint run just 38 minutes earlier over the same 1200 metre course and distance of The Goodwood.
Werrett, ironically, was standing almost shoulder to shoulder with Nolen in the post race media scrum after the big race as he was part of the ownership group with Grand Larceny who had come so close to landing the spoils himself.
Still, this was a day for the now greying Nolen to celebrate yet another top level winner with his long time collaborator Peter Moody.
The pair have a connection going back nearly two decades, and while it was just the Moody/Nolen show with Black Caviar it is now the Moody/Nolen/Katherine Coleman collective, Moody having brought the latter into the fold as his training partner a few years ago.
Desert Lightning came into the race not having finished in the first three in his last four starts but he had plenty of back class and with an official rating of 105 was the second highest ranked runner in the race with only the WA visitor Super Smink (107) rated above him.
As such the set weights conditions of the Goodwood (it was changed from its handicap status some time ago) suited him. However many punters would have looked at the 1200 metre trip and, on the balance of his most recent form, might have thought the distance would have been on the sharp side for him given that his campaign in the spring had seen him run in group 1 races like the 1800 metre Underwood Stakes at Caulfield.
But as Nolen had pointed out in his post race interview, he had suggested he could sprint well when fresh with his first up fourth in the Hareeba Stakes at Mornington in mid April which had left him cherry ripe for this test three weeks later.
“He’s been flying at home. He had a tough run with 60 kilos on his back first up in the Hareeba. The camp and myself had genuine hopes that he could win the race here today,” he said.
“The horse has been going really well, so I think the next port of call is Queensland for another go at the Stradbroke. He sprinted well then on soft ground, there’s a lot of options for him, so I’ll leave it in the camp’s capable hands the way he goes off the back of it, but I’ll be joining him wherever he goes.
”He came across with very nice form, and they (NZ owners the Green family) just allowed Peter and Katherine to do their thing. And they’re just wonderful racing stalwarts, racing fans, but it’s great to see connections like this rewarded with good races.
”He participated in an All Star Mile before he came to us, so we weren’t sure, we thought that was probably his niche. But he had a little bit of help with some surgery off season. Since then he’s been doing it first rate at home, so it was good to see him turn that confidence we’ve had at home and his work into winning a Group One here in Australia.”
Nolen admitted that he wasn’t sure if he had won or not but was reassured by the TV technology that he was definitely in the running.
“That drone kept following me around everywhere. I thought, oh, it must be a bloody chance. So, I wasn’t sure who was the inside, Lukey Cartwright (rider of the runner up) he does a bit of work for Moody. He’s a great little kid. His time is going to come, he’s at the start of his career. I’m a long way towards the end of mine. So I’m getting every one of these good races I can before we knock up time.”
Coleman is nearer the start than the end of her career but she and Moody have developed a successful partnership and feel they have now got to know the horse’s traits.
”We thought he was going to be a horse that would stretch out over ground as well, but he just seems he’s best when he’s fresh and happy and bouncing, and that’s how he is today, so it’s great and a fantastic ride from Luke Nolen as well.
“He’s so quirky, he’s got so much character. He’s an older gelding, normally, they’re the quiet ones that know their job and they don’t cause too much fuss. Well, he carries on out there like a two-year-old most mornings and upsets other horses on the track and bounces around the stable.
“We share the duties there. I ride him a bit, our stable apprentice, Emily Pozman, rides him too and adores him. He’s a horse that everyone in the stable just loves.”
Cartwright is at the start of what shapes to be a promising career and could only rue that the rub of the green did not go his way aboard the fast finishing Toby Edmonds trained filly, who was having only her seventh race start.
“She began away well, they rubbed along a little bit— I thought— and just at her top, once she saw clear air, she was obviously super. I actually thought I got it out there but… unfortunately, just another close second, but for this horse to go from what it did earlier to now, she’s a serious horse.”
Riding honours on the day went to the now Adelaide based Harry Grace, visiting Victorian Ben Melham and Sydney based Zac Lloyd, who all rode doubles.
Grace landed the opening two races on Peta’s Heart and Bred Em All for the local Will Clarken and Richard and Chantelle Jolly stables.
Melham scored on Fringes for another local yard (Michael Hickmott) and on Private Legacy for Sydney trainer Greg Hickman.
Lloyd landed the Proud Miss on the aforementioned Naifah having also won for another South Australian trainer Phillip Stokes with Arran Bay.
And there was a real feelgood story earlier in the day when Lauren Stojakovic landed her first city winner since making her race riding comeback last October after a near nine year break when she led all the way on Brave Hustler in the group 3 two year old race the David Coles Stakes for her long time supporters Shane and Cassie Oxlade.
