IT'S A CITY WIN FOR STEWART AND TAYLAH MACKINNON

By Graham Potter | Saturday, September 30, 2023

With a record of first, second, second, first from her last four runs, the Stewart and Taylah MacKinnon trained, six-year-old mare Contribute is the kind of horse any trainer would like to have in their stable.

The daughter of Contributer has, in fact, only had six starts for the MacKinnon stable during which time she has doubled her number of wins to four from seventeen career starts, having previous raced to similar good effect for Robbie Patterson for whom she finished in the first three places in eleven outings, eight of which were in New Zealand.

In Contribute’s latest win, in a Class 3 Handicap over 1820m at Eagle Farm on September 30, Mark Du Plessis took the ride for the first time in what would prove to be a first success in town in Australia for both Contribute and the MacKinnon training partnership.

Contribute came into this race on the back of two successive runner-up finishes, both over 1800m … both at the Sunshine Coast in Class 4 Handicaps.

In the first of those she was touched off by the proverbial whisker by Hyde, who was on his way to a hat-trick of wins … and she followed that up by only going down by half-a-length at her next start, so Contribute was clearly worthy of a change of fortune, but moving the challenge from the Sunshine Coast the city environment at Eagle Farm brought an additional layer to the task.

A price of $7 was on offer for those who fancied her chances and that proved to be a shrewd investment as Contribute came out ready to match motors with the best of her opposition.

Contribute jumped well enough, but Du Plessis was then content to allow her to go back to seventh place, a touch under five to six lengths off the speed, as the field went down the back stretch.

Contribute remained bang in midfield in a fairly strung-out field in the sweep to the home turn and she still had it all to do when Du Plessis switched her out four wide at the top of the straight.

The Mackinnon trained runner marked time briefly as she straightened and, by the time she started settling to her task, she has no less than eight horses in front of her and she was still a little over four lengths adrift of the main action.

You could make that seven horses and still those four to five lengths to make up with 250m left to run … you wouldn’t have been betting on her at that stage … but perseverance can be a wonderful thing and Contribute just never stopped trying.

A marginal further shift to the outside by Du Plessis and Contribute started to attack with menace,

One hundred-and-fifty metres out he was up to sixth place … and closing fast. One hundred metres later Contribute had swept into the lead and had the race won, courtesy of a fine, concentrated and sustained effort.

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