A playfully sarcastic Dylan Gibbons admitted that fellow jockey Tyler Schiller was deserving of some of his riding fee, after piloting the Hawkes Racing colt Marwooba to victory in the initial race at Rosehill.
The two-year-old was making a swift return from Canterbury on Monday, where he finished sixth over 1250m with Schiller in the saddle. However, Schiller’s prior commitments in Queensland meant he couldn’t partner Marwooba, and Gibbons was engaged for the ride in Saturday’s Kia Ora Bloodlines to Headlines Handicap (1400m).
“I probably have to send half of that fee to Tyler,” Gibbons quipped.
“He told me the back-up wouldn’t worry him, and he did tell me he held his breath last start and they put some winkers on, so fair play to him. But I’ll take this one.”
By Wootton Bassett, Marwooba was a $400,000 Magic Millions yearling purchase, and he delivered Hawkes Racing their second Sydney Saturday metropolitan two-year-old victory in successive weeks, following Why So Hard’s triumph at Randwick seven days prior.
The juvenile was a late entry following the extension of nominations for the event, with stable representative Steve Thompson remarking that they decided to take a chance after the colt had a ‘smooth’ run at Canterbury.
“His run on Monday was equivalent to a track gallop. He settled back from a wide gate and simply surged through the last two furlongs (200m) as if it were a trial,” Thompson elaborated.
“When the nominations were extended, and given this horse’s excellent constitution, we chose to nominate him and monitor how he pulled up during the week, and he’s performed exceptionally well.”
Marwooba ($7), provided with a perfect run by Gibbons on the back of the leaders, was momentarily impeded in the straight before finding a clear path and accelerating to chase the odds-on favourite Friendly Fire, who had darted through along the rail to take the advantage.
However, Marwooba finished with more conviction than the last-start winner, crossing the line with a 1-1/4 length margin over Friendly Fire. Iminastate ($8.50) finished best of the remaining runners, another 2-1/2 lengths behind.
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