THE TEGAN TOUCH - THE BALL JUST KEEPS ROLLING FOR ME IN THE BLUE AND SILVER COLOURS

By Tegan Harrison | Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Tegan Harrison has joined the HRO stable. A little known fact is that last season Tegan rode more winners than any other apprentice in Australia which means the city success she is currently enjoying has been built on a solid foundation of hard work spurred on by a strong level of ‘dedication and desire’, two factors that fellow HRO blogger and Premiership leader Michael Cahill labels as being essential ingredients behind any success story. ‘The Tegan Touch’, the personal blog of this exciting young rider will appear every Wednesday exclusively on HRO.

I was very happy to get the ride and the win on the unbeaten Going Going Gone in the two-year-old QTIS race at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

I was fortunate enough to get the call from Shane Iverson who is training some horses for Greg Wagner.

Regular racegoers will have noticed that I ride quite a bit for Greg … firstly through Roger Milne and now also with Shane … and I have had success with them.

It started off with Roger Milne. It’s all through Roger really. When I started at the provincials I used to ring Roger a lot. I annoyed him for a little while and then he started putting me on.

My first ride for him I didn’t ride too flash and I came back and said I was sorry. The horse should have won.

Then, for its next start, Roger rang me the following week and said, you can ride that horse again. I thought … how nice is that … and the horse won.

From there my relationship with Roger and Greg and then Shane just developed into what it is today.

Greg is a very loyal owner and Roger and Shane are both loyal trainers and they have really supported me.

I’d ride something and it would go well and I’d say I thought it would go well again next time and they would keep me on and let me win on it. Same goes when you win on something. They will generally keep you on.

When Going Going Gone won on debut at Ipswich Greg had two horses in the race. Michael Cahill got on Going Going Gone and I was on the other one. So Michael won on it and it won well.

Michael duly rode Going Going Gone again in its second start again at Ipswich and it won even more impressively.

When Saturday’s run at Eagle Farm was pencilled in for Going Going Gone, it was set to clash with another two-year-old, Tip Top Tiger, that Michael had been putting work into.

For that reason Shane already had me half lined up for the ride. He said he wasn’t sure if Michael would be able to ride it. He said, if he can’t ride it … you can ride it!

I was thinking that Michael will ride it, but at the same time I thought I would wait and see what happens. I thought if he ends up riding it I would just go for something else in the race … but I knew Going Going Gone was a nice horse.

Michael is a very good judge and he had a very good opinion of the horse. Shane has been right with a lot of horses I’ve ridden for him and Greg is a good owner, so I was more than happy to wait for Michael to make his decision.

In the end it is now history that Michael chose Tip Top Tiger, which left me free to ride Going Going Gone.

Ironically, of course, Tip Top Tiger was ultimately scratched from the race and Going Going Gone won it.

So that was a good break for me and I was fortunate enough to make the most of the opportunity.

I hope the ball just keeps rolling for me and the blue and silver colours. I’ve had a lot of luck in them and I have a great rapport with the team.

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In the race itself it might have looked like Going Going Gone was marking time a bit early in the straight, but I was taking my time myself.

The horse had won two starts at Ipswich against not as flash company as he was meeting on Saturday. Both times he had gone to the line and hasn’t had to be under any pressure. He has just been way too good for them.

So I was a little bit careful about placing him under pressure.

I did let a horse that I thought might be the one to beat (Grey Countess) skip away from me a little bit but I was bearing in mind that it was a long straight and I needed my horse to really balance. I thought if my one was good enough it would win.

It was a long way down the straight and I just tried to take him through his gears, balance and learn to chase a bit.

The horse just showed his true colours when it finally started to pick up.

He is a very nice horse and it is only going to continue to improve.

I’m totally understanding of the fact that Michael will probably ride it next start, but I’ve got to have a bit of fun on the horse myself and, if anything comes up … like he’s got another ride in the race again … I’m there.

Like I’ve said before, it’s all about building relationships.

I’ve always had a good rapport with Greg. He’s sharing his horses out between Roger and Shane at the moment. They are all good supporters of mine.

You know, they put me on with no claim everywhere at the provincials so I’m just happy I could repay them with this city win … with hopefully more to come.

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Finally this week, let me add my congratulations to the long list of those who have heaped praise on Lauren Stojakovic for her great ride on Miracles Of Life in the Blue Diamond Stakes.

The complete story has been well documented so I won’t go into all the details yet again.

All I want to say is that, for me as a young apprentice rider, it is always good to see someone do well.

When that someone is a girl and an apprentice I think it gives us more confidence that we can do it as well … that dreams can come true as they certainly did for Lauren on Saturday.

It was great day for women in racing. It was great day for apprentices.

Speak to you next week,

Till then,

Tegan

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