BAKER KICK-STARTS HER CAREER IN EYE-CATCHING FASHION CLAIMING A WIN IN HER VERY FIRST RIDE

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, July 8, 2025

You can’t do any better than secure a win on your very first race ride … and when it’s your only ride on the day and you get to claim a one hundred percent winning strike-rate, you have earned bragging rights, however temporary that percentage might be, as well as a confidence-booster that money cannot buy.

So, takes a bow Bailie Baker, who put her 4kg claim to good use when saluting aboard the Adam Campton (her boss) trained So You Think gelding, Pungo, at Beaudesert.

Bailie was due to have her first ride at Gatton on June 28, but the emergency acceptor Hidden Melody was scratched that day, so Baker just had to show patience, an attribute that she will undoubtedly need to put into practise a deal moving forward, before she got the leg-up for her first taste of race action.

Pungo did start as the $2.70 favourite in a BM65 Handicap over 1100m, coming into the race on the back of a win, two second places, one third place and a fourth place in his five previous starts this preparation, so Baker obviously kicked off with a very good chance on paper, but she still had to play the required positive part in the saddle to secure a noteworthy success.

And she had it all to do straight after the jump.

Pungo was slow away … a narrow last out of the gates … but Baker rallied the Campton trained runner quickly enough to still make good use of the inside run offered to her by the number one barrier draw … and Pungo duly made up ground to settle in midfield in fifth place, a touch more than three lengths off the leader in the early part.

Having got where she wanted to be, Baker was content to bide her time and give Pungo a breather until the approach to the home turn where she angled Pungo out wider on the track, eventually cornering all of five wide, but, importantly, now in clear air and able to line up a straight, uninterupted run to the finish.

The outward movement has cost Pungo a length with the deficit to the long-time leader Aye Eye Boom now out to four lengths on straightening, so Baker now had to have Pungo well enough balanced and working with her when she asked the five-year-old to quicken … and all of those pieces fell into place perfectly as Punga responded on cue to storm home down the centre of the track to reel in Aye Eye Boom inside the last 50m to, in the end, score by a comfortable 0.40 length margin.

At different stages of the race, it was easier for to run a good second or third than win, but Baker and Pungo handled the challenge with some aplomb and earned a memorable result.

The bottom line is Baker could not have kicked off her career in a more positive and eye-catching fashion.

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