Extended holiday pays off in trotters final

After opting to extend his stay in the Sunshine State following the 2021 TAB Queensland Constellations carnival, trainer-driver Rickie Alchin made sure he remained long enough for the Springboard Series Final.

The multiple-Group 1 winning trainer picked up the two-year-old edition of the series, with Flashy Seb much too powerful, while stablemate Troythetrotter was second past the post in the three-year-old’s event.

The Springboard Series aims to help increase the number of squaregaited standardbreds in Queensland each year.

Following Flashy Seb’s dominant victory on Friday evening at Albion Park, the NSW-based Alchin has dashed back south of the border to be with his team of horses.

“I hung around because I did not want to go home the way things were and with the Springboard for the trotters, I waited for that Friday and a few of the horses had about enough anyway,” Alchin, who won the series with Aldebaran Selena last year, said.

“I have a fair few babies working up down here so I thought I better get home and get stuck into them.

“I could have left him up there in Queensland if I wanted to come back to NSW, but he has done a good job.”

Flashy Seb – a son of Sebastian K and winner of three from six starts in his two-year-old season – put over 30 metres between himself and his nearest rival over 1628 metres on Friday and now heads to the paddock for a freshen up.

Alchin, who comes from a top harness racing pedigree in the Riverina district of NSW, thinks the bay gelding will mature into a nice horse, noting he has good speed for a baby.

With champion trotter Tough Monarch and promising youngsters Flashy Seb and Troythetrotter in his team, the Menangle Park-based trainer says an abundance of trotters being in his stable came by chance.

“Flashy Seb is quite a nice horse and we may look to take him to Melbourne for the Need For Speed in early February, he has had a long prep so we decided to bring him home and get him ready for that,” Alchin said.

“He has a bright future and certainly will go back to Queensland next year.

“Troythetrotter in the three-year-old race, he went okay, as that was the first time, he trotted the whole way and he probably was not as sharp as he had been in other starts.

“Troythetrotter will have a good spell as well and they will both go for a good spell now.

“There is no reason we have a lot of trotters, it just sort of fell that way, but I do enjoy them, you just need to have a lot of patience.”

Alchin, who had a big winter in Queensland – training almost 30 winners – praised the Springboard Series as a concept, providing young trotters with more opportunities for the third year, branding it a great series.

The winner of the three-year-old edition, Marburg trainer Denis Smith agreed with Alchin, declaring anything that promotes trotters was excellent in his books.

Driven by Group 1-winning reinsman Paul Diebert, Smith’s Ignite collected his fifth career victory in the three-year-old Final from just 22 appearances on race day.

Experienced trainer Smith is hopeful his young trotter will come back bigger and better in his next preparation.

“I think he is a very able horse but he has got gait problems, which has proved to be a handicap for him at times,” Smith said.

“I have just turned him out for three months, he needs to grow a bit of length in his body.

“He has done a magic job I think, winning five races so far, a couple of his runs have been super that make you think he is a pretty fair horse.”

By Jordan Gerrans for Racing Queensland