Colin Davies with his Maiden Plate winner Citigal and most importantly, a beautiful trophy to send up to his cousin Gillian. 88638 Picture: JARROD POTTER
By JARROD POTTER
EVERY win is special to Colin Davies, but a recent addition to his Kooweerup-based stables, the five-year-old mare Citigal, managed to put a nose ahead to claim the 1750m Maiden Plate at the Pakenham Guineas – which will come as a welcome piece of good news in the family during a tough month.
Davies’ cousin Gillian Armstrong, who lives on the Gold Coast, and part of the winning syndicate, has recently been diagnosed with bone cancer, and the news her horse has taken home its first win will certainly help to boost spirits.
“She (Citigal) ran up to what she’d been showing me in her work, so I’m pretty happy for my cousin and I’m pretty happy to win a race at Pakenham.
“Happy for my cousin – she’s now got a trophy and I’m going to send it to Queensland for her now and maybe even send her a picture of the newspaper.”
Citigal had been bounced from place to place by Gai Waterhouse, its previous trainer, before Davies convinced the syndicate, led by Armstrong, to let him see what the horse had in Melbourne instead of retiring her.
“Citigal was bought by Gai Waterhouse by my cousin, who lives at the Gold Coast, and after trialling and galloping Gai said she wasn’t good enough, so she sent her to Canberra, Wagga and it’s been around a bit,” Davies said.
“My cousin rang me up and said she was a bit frustrated about the whole deal and she said what can I do with her and I said if you send her down to me, as one of the syndicate dropped out, I said I’d take the share and see if I can win a race for her.
“Three weeks ago she rang me, crying saying she’d just been diagnosed with bone cancer, then they emailed me this week saying they wanted to retire her and I said don’t do anything to her, I’ll speak to you Monday as I think she can win a race for you on Saturday.
“When it rained at my place this morning (Saturday) at Kooweerup I thought it was going to be a heavy track, but we didn’t get the rain here and was happy with the way the track ran.
Davies told Citigal’s jockey Adam McCabe to hold her back a bit – at the 1200m and 800m the mare was sitting behind the pack in fifth before making its move just before the 400m. It managed to squeeze past Just Fine and Sienna of Sydney for a win of less than a 10th of a margin.
“The race went well – she does have the ability to lead them, but I said to the jockey that if she went to the front they may run her down, and if you could just sit behind them a bit, then keep her best for last.
“Even though she was big odds, that was my feeling, and he did what I asked him and it was a good job.”
Davies capped off a stellar weekend with his 10-year-old gelding Stanzout finishing third in the 1000m Apache Classic at the Cranbourne Cup Carnival and a second to Gilgandra Jack in the 1000m Maiden Plate.
