Not only was it his first win in a long time (905 days), but it was the perfect way for horse trainer Jeremy Douglas and one of the gelding’s main owners, Megan Reidie, who have just gotten married, to celebrate the occasion.
“Megan and I got married three weeks ago and planned for this to be as good as a honeymoon would go. We’ve been to Aussie a few times in the last year so we decided on this,” Douglas said.
It was the first victory for the nine-year-old gelding since September 2023 and the first for Douglas, who has trained the gelding since March last year.
“It took us a while to get him to drop out. He’s one of the victims of the horse revaluation. He wasn’t quite good enough to go with the good horses and he had to go far away if he was racing against anything else.”
After starting well over twenty meters in today’s McNulty Transport Cromwell Fruit Bowl, driver Hayden Douglas placed the Macandrew Aviator back on the inside running line before bringing it forward to sit parked. In the final 400 he began to pressure leader Tabasco, while Bettor Way stalked the pair.
Within the final 50 meters Douglas got the best of Macandrew Aviator and he rose to beat Bettor Way by a head and Tabasco back by a neck in third. The fourth horse was seven and a half lengths away.
MACANDREW FLYER REPEAT
The race was marred when the big favorite Beach Day broke out and lost all chances.
“He hasn’t been an easy horse to manage. He’s had a lot of little problems. Nothing super serious, but very annoying. It’s been a bit painful to keep him in good condition, but he’s Megan’s favorite so we’ll have to deal with that.”
Douglas said he has no serious goals for Macandrew Aviator.
“I see him as a horse who has done a great job for the owners, especially in Canterbury, and now this is an opportunity for him to race locally for a while and raise some money where he can and look at smaller targets.”
It was a good day for Hayden Douglas. He rode the Matt Brinsdon-trained Always A Menace (Always B Miki) to win the Hygain – Revel Douglas Memorial Series Mobile Pace.
For full race results, click here.
Through Bruce Stewartfor Harnesslink
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