Emotional victory in first Breckon Farms Young Guns heat

Going through the tapes in preparation for tonight’s opening round of Young Gun’s Heats on Northern Oaks and Derby night at Alexandra Park, the famous harness racing colours of Frank Cooney’s caught the eye in the form of Cyclone Jordy (Art Major).

The Tate Hopkins- rainee showed great gate speed a fortnight ago to lead from barrier three in his first race day start. He soon became buried away three deep on the markers and was hard held by David Butcher most of the way up the Alexandra Park straight finishing less than two lengths from race winner and rival for tonight’s assignment, Lincoln Lou (Sweet Lou).

Upon speaking to Hopkins last night, he declared he had a bit of time for the horse and wasnt there to make up the numbers in a talented field of 12 juvenile colts and geldings.

“David is pretty casual about things and he told me he goes good enough at this stage and is worth pressing on with and hopefully he keeps improving and doing things right. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t be there if I didn’t think he could run in the top three. I wont be giving David any instructions, I will just leave things up to him and I’m sure he will do the best by the horse,” said Hopkins on Thursday night.

24 hours later, an emotional Hopkins was standing in the Alexandra Park birdcage having watched his talented juvenile convincingly put away the best of the North Island’s two-year-old’s, bringing up his first career training success since going out on his own accord.

“It’s huge, to be honest, I have a lot of time for this horse, and to do it for a great bunch of owners, plus Frank and Ann Cooney, it’s just awesome and pretty big to be honest,” said Hopkins who was choking up as he spoke.

“He’s an absolute pleasure to deal with, he’s a real gentleman to have around the barn and possesses a bit of ability so it’s pretty exciting. He’s very sharp for a young horse and has been since day dot. He has a bit of gate speed but he can take a sit if he needs to as well and is very tactile.

“I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for Frank, he’s taught me just about everything I know and him and Ann are like Grandparents to me so it’s pretty big and special tonight,” he said.

Cyclone Jordy showed the same dazzling gate speed as he did on debut, the difference this time being that his pilot David Butcher was in no mood to hand up. When the race favourite and full brother to Copy That in Sugar Ray Lincoln galloped his way out of contention, Butcher set about leading them a merry dance.

There wasn’t a lot of moves in the race and this allowed Butcher to dictate terms as he liked, reflected in the fact the colts went a mile rate that was two seconds slower than the fillies earlier a couple of races earlier.

When asked for his ultimate effort, Cyclone Jordy unwound stylishly going away to win by one and three quarter lengths ahead of the Purdon/Phelan trained Confederate (Bettor’s Delight) with the Purdon Racing trained Demon Blue (Art Major) solid in third after working from last to get up outside the leader with a lap to go.

CYCLONE JORDIE REPLAY

Cyclone Jordy was a $70,000 yearling sales purchase from Karaka last year and has a fair bit of blood in his pedigree which would have given confidence that he would go early.

His Mach Three dam Cyclone Kate was the winner of 21 races which included multiple stakes events at G2 and G3 level. Her full brother, Cyclone Prince was also a winner of the G1 Young Guns Final back in 2013, and with just her third foal and first colt in Cyclone Jordy gets an opportunity to add to that legacy as a brood.

The winning time for the 1700m mobile was 2:04.4 with the last mile run in 1:57.7 and closing sectionals of 57.5 and 27.6.

For complete Alexandra Park results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink