Leading Sydney jockey Nash Rawiller is forming a potent partnership with New Zealand-bred gelding Toesonthenose, who scored a comfortable win in Saturday’s A$160,000 Vale Ray Markey Handicap (1800m) at Rosehill.
Rawiller had his first ride on the Ocean Park gelding at Newcastle on November 18, scoring a two-length win in a Midway Handicap (1600m). He was back aboard again on Saturday and delivered a similar result as a $2.50 favourite.
“Nash has probably been the turning point with this horse,” expat New Zealand trainer John Sargent said. “When he got the ride at Newcastle, he said he wanted to ride the horse a little bit colder. I wasn’t sure if that was the way to ride him, but he seems to know more than the trainer.
“He did it again today. He just held him up and came at them late, and it seems to suit him nicely.
“I’ll see if there’s another race for him over the next few weeks, seeing as he’s in such good form and going through the grades. I’ll see what the owners, the Tricolours Syndicate, want to do.”
That patient approach saw Toesonthenose settle comfortably in midfield for most of Saturday’s race, then loom ominously behind the leaders at the top of the home straight.
Rawiller spotted a gap and drove Toesonthenose through, bounding to the lead and going clear to win by a length and a half.
“He’s a horse in really good form,” Rawiller said. “He seems to be appreciating having a little bit of the sting out of the ground. The race was over a bit further today and he travelled even better. I was very confident that he’d be strong at the finish, and he didn’t let us down. It was good.”
Out of the winning More Than Ready mare Peak Performer, who stems from the family of So You Think, Toesonthenose was bred by Ocean Park’s trainer Gary Hennessy along with wife Jenny under their Weowna Park banner in conjunction with Andrew Wong.
Toesonthenose is a graduate of the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale, where he was sold by Kilgravin Lodge for $50,000 to James Moss of Tricolours Racing.
From 19 starts, Toesonthenose has now recorded six wins and six placings, earning A$328,960 in stakes.