THE SYMONS / LAXON TRAINING PARTNERSHIP SIZZLES WITH A TREBLE AT THE SUNSHINE COAST

By Graham Potter | Sunday, July 9, 2023

When Taupo Tiger won a three-Year-Old Maiden Handicap over 1800m at the Sunshine Coast on July 9 ... the opening race on the card ... co-trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon had no idea that they had only just fired the opening salvo on a day which would also see Winsome Star and Van Nuys blast their way into the winner’s enclosure to add their names to the Symons / Laxon scoreboard and see the stable land a treble by the time the sixth race had been completed.

Taupo Tiger landed his first career success in his sixth start in his second attempt over the 1800m trip. Clearly, it was good for Taupo Tiger to get the monkey off his back.

“We’ve always loved him,” stated Laxon, “In his first start at Ipswich (on April 28) he let the winner out and then carried straight on through the bend. He was on the wrong leg and didn’t come around the bend any good, and so he straight away earned a reputation as a horse that hangs.

“It can be hard to get that straightened out. If he gets on the wrong leg, he can run out like that ... as horses do ... and it is quite difficult to get the jockey in sync with what is required to remedy that, but Jaden (Lloyd) rode him in a trial on Tuesday and he said he didn’t have a problem.

“In essence, though, he is a really nice horse in the making and Jaden was very happy with him.”

Lloyd, who would ride all three of the stable winners on the day, certainly played his part in Taupo Tiger’s victory, showing patience early, introducing his mount into the race at the right time and guiding him to the line with excellent precision.
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The Symons / Laxon / Lloyd team didn’t waste any time in making it a double with Winsome Star taking out the second race on the card ... a QTIS Two-Year-Old Maiden Handicap over 1200m ... almost before the dust had settled on Taupo Tiger’s win.

A couple of layers of added pleasure came with Winsome Star’s win ... namely that he was winning on debut, which is always an obvious very happy outcome for any horse kicking off its career, and also due to the fact that this win was no ‘gimme.’ Winsome Star had to earn his success and the manner in which he achieved that was certainly impressive enough.

The son of Star Turn went back after the start and he raced on the rail, six to seven lengths off the lead, in the first half of the race with Lloyd content to let Winsome Star settle into his task.

Saving ground throughout, Winsome Star cornered some three lengths off the lead but, while he had halved that deficit, he still faced the very real problem of traffic congestion ahead of him which looked like hindering his chances in the home straight.

Trapped behind runners at a vital stage from the 250m to the 150m, a case could have been made at that stage that his chance of victory had gone, but when he found galloping room approaching the 100m mark, Winsome Star reacted like a seasoned professional rather than a two-year-old on debut.

With little time left, Winsome Star stuck to the task at hand, gradually ... oh so gradually it seemed given the proximity to the winning post ... moving up to get close enough to have a say in the finish with his perseverance ultimately the paying dividends as he won a tight photo finish result, getting up in the very last stride.

“I thought he had run second actually” admitted Laxon. “It looked like he wasn’t going to get that run ... and it was really educational for him to ping through that gap like that.”

The first time Winsome Star was in front was on the line.
What is it they say. It doesn’t matter how much you win by!

A nice case in point.
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Four races later, the Symons /Laxon training partnership had win number three for the day in the bank.

Van Nuys, who had won successive races ... including one in town ... in late 2022, was third up here in a Class 3 Handicap over 1800m after having been given a six month break from racing and he had arguably put the writing on the wall with an eye-catching runner-up finish in his last lead-up run over the same track and distance coming into this race.

While Taupo Tiger ($4) and Winsome Star ($4.60) had allowed punters some room for value, the bookmakers were not in the mood to hand out any favours here with Van Nuys marked up at the restrictive odds of $1.55 with Leored the only other runner quoted in single figures.

To be fair they got the call right in terms of the result, but not in terms of the closeness of the contest.

Van Nuys landed in the lead before going back to settle in fourth, then third place a little over three lengths off the lead as the field went down the back stretch. At that stage Leored was four lengths behind the Symons / Laxon trained runner.

Coming through the 300m mark, Van Nuys was up to second and in the process of chasing down the leader Googaz ($13). In spite of having to be relatively hard ridden to do so, it appeared that Lloyd had got Van Nuys to the head of affairs at exactly the right time (he headed Googaz with 180m left to run) and, for a moment, it looked as if those who had taken the short odds now had absolutely nothing to worry about.

For a moment.

That situation changed dramatically with the finishing effort produced by Leored. Flying down the centre of the track, Leored was now taking chunks out of Van Nuys’s lead with every stride.

From five lengths back at the 200m, to a mere two-and-a-half lengths at the 100m ... and still closing fast ... Leored just kept coming with his momentum taking him right up alongside Van Nuys at the line, meaning the Symons / Laxon team had to endure another dramatic photo-finish wait until their treble victory was confirmed.

As with the Winsome Star result, the result could not have been any closer.

Two from two in that photo-finish situation ... you will take it any day, particularly, knowing racing’s luck won’t always fall your way.
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The four-timer was a possibly going into the eighth race on the card where the stable’s only other runner on the day, That’s All Good, lined up in a Band 0-62 Handicap over 1400m.

The very lightly race three-year-old filly was only having her third career start here, but she already had a win on the board having taken out a taken out a QTIS Three-year-Old Maiden Handicap over 1200m at the Sunshine Coast on June 16.

That’s All Good raced in midfield early, was in the second half of the field approaching the home turn and, while he did run on steadily enough in the home straight, he never carried enough momentum to threaten the result, eventually finishing just under five lengths off the winner Half Crown, but, noitably, less than two lengths off the second placed finisher.

Not a bad run for a horse still learning her trade.

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