GOLD COAST, JAN 10: MAGIC MILLIONS TWO-YEAR-OLD CLASSIC: TRAINER, JOCKEY, OWNER FEEDBACK

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 11, 2015

Gold Coast, January 10, 2014
Track - soft 4; rail - 1m 1400-1000, 1.5m 1000-400, true remainder.
Magic Millions 2YO Classic – 1200m
1 Le Chef; 2 Pepperano; 3 Single Gaze; 4 Madotti
Time: 1-10.77. Last 600m: 35.70
Won by 0.80 lengths at a starting price of $16.

WINNER FEEDBACK:

TRAINER DARRYL HANSEN:

“The pressure has been very intense throughout.

“Going into last week we still needed to get into the field, firstly, so we more or less had to win that race last week ... and he did, which released the pressure valve a little bit.

“Then I knew all I had to do was get him to the Millions in A1 condition ... which meant I didn’t have to do a lot with him. Like I said at the time ... I just needed to wrap him in cotton wool and look after him for the week.

“I have to thank Jill Malcolm. She’s got paddocks just up the road from us near the pony club. They were safe, grassy and so I put him up there from Sunday until Thursday.

“I would go up there and sit in the paddock with him ... watch him wander around, eating grass and he never missed a beat in the feed-bin too.

“He was tucked up on the Sunday after his run and I was starting to panic a bit but the next day when I went back there he let back down so quick, and with not missing a beat in the feed-bin, I thought well, I’ve got you back ... and that made it easy for the week.

“It was interesting once he secured his place in the Millions field, I didn’t get a call from any other jockey or jockey’s manager at all. I think everyone knew that Luke (Tarrant) was cemented on the horse.

“He might still be an apprentice but, as I said before, why wouldn’t you put him on. He leads the Brisbane Premiership by something like twelve wins I think. To be doing that you have got to be riding well.

“Luke is a kid who is just full of confidence. That goes a long way ... and he is riding like a demon.

“The night before the Millions I didn’t get much sleep ... maybe three hours. I don’t think I was nervous. I was just very excited. I sat up that night watching TV until all hours of the morning.

“Millions day I probably surprised myself. Normally, going to a race like that, I’d probably say I would get nervous but I think you get to a stage where you know you’ve done all you can. We’d got him in the race and, you know, from there I guess it is simply a case of whatever happens, happens ... and we couldn’t have wished for a better outcome.

“I am happy when I am now as a trainer, but I can’t deny it has been a slog to get back after spending some time out of the game.

“Debbie and I stuck to our guns. We worked very hard and we’ve finally got a small number of horses that can gallop, so it’s all been slowly falling back into place.

“The coverage we have received out of this Magic Millions win is enormous, which can only help the stable moving forward.”

JOCKEY LUKE TARRANT:

“To be honest, everything panned out dead-set perfectly the way I would have wanted it to happen.

“He jumped really well. He sort of put himself there. He travelled lovely for me when I wanted to let them cross me.

“They crossed me. The pace was lovely. He travelled beautiful.

“On the turn I was swinging. I just had so much horse under me on the turn all I needed was the split. The leader stayed on the fence and the second horse came straight off and let me straight up the middle and he hit the front so easily. I did keep riding hard to the line though.

“He’ll get better too. The way he has just progressed throughout the preparation ... it’s been enormous. I mean in his first run he goes and gets beat eleven lengths by Wicked Intent and then comes and beats it here by I don’t even know how far.

“People keep asking me how I felt when I crossed the line. I still don’t know how to answer it. It’s still surreal. I don’t know how to explain it ... I just don’t know. I guess it hasn’t really sunk in yet.

“I do know the Millions result will kick my career along nicely and I’ve got to thank Darryl (Hansen) and the connections for having faith in me and given such a great opportunity.

“The money means nothing to me ... ok the money’s good as a bonus, but the biggest thing for me to come out of the win is people seeing I can ride winners without my claim. I don’t need it and I can still cut it with the senior jockeys.

“That’s by far the best thing to come out of it for me.

And again, I’ve got to thank Frank and Melanie Phillips.

“Frank has already been up me for my use of the whip. That’s why he is a good boss. He’ll praise you when you do something right but he’ll also let you know when you do something wrong.

“And Melanie ... she is just fantastic. She’s not only my manager, she’s my accountant as well ... because a lot my bills just come out of pay so she pays my bills. She gets all my rides. She looks after me. She cooks me dinner. She’s another mom to me!”

WINNING CONNECTIONS:

GRAEME AND LENORE SAUNDERS:

GRAEME SAUNDERS: “It’s hard to imagine we’ve achieved all this coming from Mt Isa, but we have.

“Darryl (Hansen) has done a good job with the horse. When he was interviewed the other day he said the connections were disappointed after Le Chef’s first start. I’ll put my hand up. There was only one person who was disappointed. It was me. I’m very hard on horses.

“Then after that first run (in which Le Chef was beaten 10.40 lengths by Wicked Intent) Darryl ran up and said we are still a Magic Millions chance. I said, he’s kidding isn’t he ... and I hung up. I said he’s got to be kidding. This thing got lapped.

“Then, later again, he rang me back and said I’ve worked him with the blinkers and tell Lenore he just went like a rocket.

“Then he went to Ipswich. The commentator said he went fast at the start, fast in the middle and fast at the end ... and I knew we had a Magic Millions horse then because he sprinted hard off a very fast pace.

“All credit to Darryl. Very few two-year-olds win three weeks in a row.

“Darryl said to us ... that is my wife, myself and Andrew, my son, that we have got a firm plan. He said we are going to Ipswich. We are going to the Gold Coast and we are going to have to back him up. He had nine days, seven days ... that’s very hard to do with a two-year-old.

“I really have to take my hat off to Darryl.

“We won the Birdsville Cup a few years ago ... the ‘Melbourne Cup Of the Bush.’ It is a phenomenal race-meeting. It’s been going for thirty years. We wanted to win the Birdsville Cup and we did.

“The Birdsville Cup is the best thing I’ve ever seen in racing. This win topped that!”

LENORE SAUNDERS: “Graeme picked the horse out at the sales. Out trainer from Mt Isa as with us and he did all the bidding for us.

“They got to $100 000 ... and there was an under-bidder (Danny O’Brien) ... and I thought, alright, just go one more. That was $120 000 and I pulled up then, but nobody else bid again so we got the horse.

“Mostly over the years we’ve been buying tried horse to try and win around the Mt Isa circuit.

“We go from Birdsville, back to Bedourie, Julia Creek, Richmond ... right over the Townsville. We’ve been to Rockhampton. We’ve been to Mackay.

“We’ll go wherever there is a race meeting where we think we’ve got a chance.”

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