NIKAU SPUR - ANOTHER BIG EFFORT. DOING TEAM GERAN AND KO RACING PROUD

By Graham Potter | Saturday, August 12, 2023

KO Racing’s Nikau Spur’s win on in town July 29 was a huge effort from the son of Proisir. The fact that it came off the back of an eye-catching third place finish at Ipswich ten days earlier strongly suggested that Nikau Spur was enjoying his racing and lifting his form in the right direction.

To win two-in-a-row anywhere though is no ‘gimme’ so when the Corey and Kylie Geran stable set Nikau Spur the task of chasing back-to-back wins in town on August 12, when stepping the chestnut up to a BM90 (from a BM78) and pushing the race distance out ever so slightly to 1835m (from 1815m), it was always going to be a tough assignment for the now seven-year-old, but, while the win did elude him, Nikau Spur did run out of his skin, to claim a highly creditable third place dead-heat, finishing just half-a-length behind the winner Tony Be, who carried 2kg less than the Geran Team trained runner.

Racing in midfield in the early right alongside Tony Be, Du Plessis held his position on Nikau Spur until the approach to the home turn where he brought Nikau Spur right into contention, circling four-wide, but now within a length of the lead.

Nikau Spur’s run home was strong with Du Plessis driving him to the front early in the straight, but with other challengers still very much in play all around him ... Shopping Esprit (the $2.60 favourite) to his immediate outside and Wairere Falls ($13) hard along his inside.

These runners made a line of three across the track with 200m left to run and they remained engaged in that three-way battle all the way to the line but, in the end, they would all be run out of it by Tony Be who, after falling back when trapped along the inside turning into the straight, produced a rousing finishing effort once he got into clear galloping room.

Such was Tony Be’s acceleration that he made up all of six lengths over the final 200m to swamp his opposition late with Shopping Esprit just edging ahead of the dead-heaters Nikau Spur and Wairere Falls to claim second spot in a very busy finish.

So, there was no cigar this time around for Nikau Spur, but he did produce another high quality effort, giving his best throughout ... doing KO Racing proud!
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A week later, on August 19 at the Gold Coast, the KO Racing brands colours were prominent once again when Rugged Woman continued her remarkable run of ultra consistent performances by finishing second in a BM58 Handicap over 1900m.

Since relocating from the Paul Moroney stable to the Geran training team, the daughter of Glass Harmonium has raced eight times for two wins (she came into the stable as a non-winner), three third placings, one third and one fourth placed finish.

Nothing spectacular about that ... maybe ... but there will be a lot of owners willing to swop for that sort of consistent return on investment.

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