Mark Oulaghan may have left his stable stars at home on Saturday, but Semper Magico stepped right up to the task securing his first success over the fences in the Cody Singer Memorial Maiden Hurdle (2500m).
Semper Magico had the superior flat form of the field with nine victories and a placing in the Listed Wanganui Cup (2040m) last December, and his jumping debut at Hastings was very nearly a winning one losing in a head-bobbing finish to Dictation.
The son of Per Incanto was backed into near-unbeatable favouritism at $1.30 under leading rider Portia Matthews, who allowed him to slide up outside the lead early in proceedings alongside Cheeky Azz. Deriving benefit from his debut, Semper Magico jumped efficiently along the back stretch and when Matthews asked for an effort at the 800m, he left the rest of the field flat-footed skipping out to a five-length buffer turning for home.
Kevin Myers’ pair of Go Butch and Mugshot chased the favourite gamely in the closing stages, but Semper Magico was far too classy pulling away at the line by 7 ¼ lengths.
The victory was Matthews’ second aboard the eight-year-old, with a win in a Rating 65 high weight last August commencing a glittering run of form where he would go on to take out four of his next seven races.
“That’s where he likes to be (in front), we like to keep him happy,” Matthews said.
“Last time on debut I just kept him back a bit to ensure that we got the jumping bit right, but he’s a very talented horse and I’ve ridden him in high weights as well so I know what he can be like.
“He’s a horse that you have to keep going, because when he stops, you cannot get him going again.
“Although it may have looked like I was going a bit early and had the stick to him, it allowed him to get through that flat spot and continue to travel with not much effort.
“I’m really glad that he got there, he’s an exciting horse for the future if Mark lets me keep him as a jumper. He is a stakes horse so if we can keep him going well on the flat we’ll do that as well.”
It was a sentimental victory for the stable, with the race being dedicated to Cody Singer, a gifted former jumps jockey who won the Wellington Steeplechase (5500m) of 2010 aboard Oulaghan’s two-time winner Brushman.
“Last start we just had a bit go wrong, my stick broke and there were a couple of things that didn’t quite go our way. I won this race last year and when nothing went right the other day, I knew this was the race he was meant to win,” Matthews said.
Oulaghan co-bred Semper Magico and shares in the ownership alongside wife Penny, with the majority of his $276,439 in stakes earnings collected during a highly-successful season for the gelding.
“When she (Matthews) set him a light at the 800 he put them behind him a bit so I was hoping he could hang on from there, and he obviously did that,” Oulaghan said.
“I think as he does a bit more he’ll improve.
“We’ll possibly take him to Riccarton, I don’t know whether we’ll run in the National but there is a 0-1 hurdle as well.”
Semper Magico is out of the Oulaghan’s talented Grosvenor mare Semper Fidelis, who won the Gr.3 Trentham Stakes (2400m) and was a multiple Group Two placegetter during her career. Of her four other foals to race, Montjeu mare Marea Alta was the standout winning eight races and twice at Listed level.