Lightly raced sprinter Is That So made a welcome return to winning form when he showed plenty of determination in a tight finish to take out the open sprint at Trentham.
The Clinton Isdale-trained seven-year-old was having just his sixteenth start in a career that saw him put together three wins in succession on the Cambridge synthetic surface during the winter of 2022 before recording his fourth success with a victory at Trentham in October last year.
A further nine starts had yielded just three further placings however he made amends on Saturday courtesy of a heady ride by leading South Island jockey Tina Comignaghi.
Comignaghi was happy to settle the son of Sufficient in behind pacemaker and race favourite Express Yourself, before angling for a run one-off the fence mid-way down the home straight.
Just as Express Yourself was being hailed the winner, Is That So mounted a final challenge and put his head in front when it mattered to score in a slick 1.01.73 for the 1100m contest.
“Last start the wet track tripped him up as he was travelling then lost all his momentum when he hit a tricky spot,” Isdale said.
“He is more effective on a good track as we have seen today.
“He has been a hard horse to get a gauge on as he has had everything go wrong with tracks and rain however today I was really confident as his work has been exceptional.
“We will probably try to keep him to the open races for now as we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.
“If we look after the horse he will look after us.”
Comignaghi was delighted to travel north and collect a victory in a race which panned out how she had expected.
“It panned out as I had planned as I wanted to get cover then get out (clear) at the last minute,” she said.
“He doesn’t have much of a sprint but the gap opened at just the right time.
“I wasn’t that confident I could get there but he tried hard and it was nice not to run second.”
Is That So is the only foal of two-race winner Sheez Torkin and has now won five of his 16 starts and over $132,000 in prizemoney.