SLIPPIN' JIMMY QUCKLY BACK IN THE WINNING GROOVE

By Graham Potter | Thursday, July 18, 2024

The lightly raced, chestnut gelding Slippin’ Jimmy made it three wins in his last four starts ... and his fourth win from only eight career outings ... when he took out the BM66 Showcase Handicap over 1000m at Grafton on July 18.

With apprentice jockey Jace McMurray claiming 2kg off the steadying weight burden of 62kg that Slippin’ Jimmy (a $1.85 chance) was set to carry, the David Vandyke trained runner landed in the leading line, was caught wide early ... but was unable to push up into a clear second place as the $61 outsider Hidden Hail set the early target.

Slippin’ Jimmy tracked the leader until the home turn, and he quickly moved alongside Hidden Hail on straightening. At that stage, racing green, Slippin’ Jimmy shifted in and brushed Hidden Hail, then shifted out again with his head turned markedly to his outside ... but McMurray than got his mount quickly balanced up again and, with Hidden Hail a spent force, Slippin’ Jimmy chased into a clear lead inside the 200m mark.

There were still threats to deal with though as Sparkingly ($12) and Single Touch ($9) both ran on strongly enough down the centre of the track to threaten Slippin’ Jimmy’s superiority but, although they did get within 0.66 and 0.73 lengths of the winner respectively ... that winner was Slippin’ Jimmy who McMurray had kept going strongly to the line.

The four-year-old son of Pariah had previously won second-up at Kilcoy in a BM60 Handicap over 1200m and followed that up with a win in a BM62 Handicap over 1400m at the Sunshine Coast, starting favourite on both occasions at $2.10 and $1.40 respectively.

He then stepped things up and went to town where he found one too good for him on the day in a BM68 over 1350m at Doomben, but his second-place finish was full of merit.

He was quickly back in the groove here with this latest success, which was a notable effort coming back in distance (from 1350m to 1000m), on a track he was racing on for the first time after travelling the 420km from David Vandyke’s Sunshine Coast base to Grafton.

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