A SUNSHINE COAST CELEBRATION

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 20, 2013

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily which appears every Sunday. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily

In the grand scheme of things, Saluter’s win in the $1 million Magic Millions Three-Year-Old Guineas at the Gold Coast’s marquee event last weekend was a huge win for the Sunshine Coast.

Many big names were represented in the feature line-up … the likes Waterhouse, O’Shea, Waller, Heathcote, Wood all had runners in the big race, but it was the Sunshine Coast trainer / jockey combination of Jason McLachlan and Damian Browne that carried the day, courtesy of a gutsy display by Saluter, who prevailed in a pressurised finish to score a famous victory.

McLachlan is no stranger to Magic Millions success. His late father, multiple premiership winning trainer Bruce McLachlan, had several Magic Millions victories behind his name, one of the most notable being when he, in a training partnership with his son Jason, won the Two-Year-Old Classic with Phelan Ready in 2009.

Speak to Jason any time on a racing related matter and the chances are that a reference to his ‘old man’ will come up in conversation. There’s enormous respect there and inevitably after any win, from a Maiden to a feature, there is usually an acknowledgement to the heavens paying tribute to the man Jason believes is looking down on him.

The bigger the win, the more the emotion overflows … and it was very emotional at the Gold Coast last Saturday when it came down to the business end of the running of the Guineas.

McLachlan watched the race from a position close to the running rail, some 50m shy of the finish. Fellow Sunshine Coast based trainer Darryl Hansen kept McLachlan company during the race and, when McLachlan’s runner Saluter landed the heavier punches in a blow for blow exchange with Driefontein over the final 100m … and then had just enough in hand to see off the flying finish of the favourite Sizzling, McLachlan turned to Hansen.

For a moment he appeared to almost freeze for a split second while the result sunk in.

A quick nod of confirmation by Hansen though was all that was needed to get the celebration under way and McLachlan does know how to celebrate!

“My dad won three of them (Millions races), but never the Three-Year-Old Millions race. He got beaten a nose with Picaday, but now his son has done it for him, so it is a very special win for me,” said McLachlan.

Sunshine Coast Premiership winning jockey Damian Browne had gone into the race hopeful of a positive outcome.

“Circumstances have been against Saluter in his last couple of runs. A couple of times he was almost entitled to turn it up 100 out, but the way he stuck on and fought just indicated to me that he is a really gutsy horse and that’s why I thought with any sort of run of luck today he would be a factor in the outcome,” said Browne.

Browne was dislodged from his mount in the first race on the day but bounced back to land this major success.

Of the fall, Browne commented, “The horse put in a couple of little bucks. I just gave him a bit of a slap up to try and get him out of it and he started to put in some bigger ones. He went up and I went down. I thought … this is going to be a great day, but thankfully things got better.”

Talk about the ups and downs of racing. Browne could do that quite literally.

But at the end of the day, there was a huge success to savour.

Call it a Sunshine Coast celebration!

From the Sunshine Coast Daily, Sunday, January 20

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