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Meeting In Review – Wednesday 24 July 2024
Date: 25-Jul-2024
The final Ipswich Turf Club meeting of the 2023/24 season will be remembered for Les Ross calling time on his outstanding training career, Ryan Maloney riding a four timer and the continued rise of apprentice Cody Collis.
The club are proud that the popular conditioner’s final runner, Mishani Spartan was at Ipswich given his strong affiliation with the club.
While Ross didn’t get the result he wanted, he bowed out having trained 94 winners at Ipswich from 755 starters.
Ross understandably was the focus off the track, but one man clearly starred on the track.
Multiple Group 1 winning jockey Ryan Maloney took Wednesday’s meeting by the scruff of the neck, winning four of his five rides.
Maloney kicked off his super day in the saddle in the opening race with raging favourite Mister Bianco.
If you took the $1.45 on offer you would have been nervous in the run with the Paul Shailer-trained gelding settling midfield behind a moderate pace.
However, he let down well to get the better of Unega Wahy’a by half a length.
It didn’t take long for Maloney to signal that he had his eye when he piloted Dance Wizzard to victory in the following race for an early race-to-race double.
The son of Choisir was one of four runners in the 1200m contest for trainer Tony Gollan and settled second by stablemate Morganite.
Despite hanging on the home turn, he picked up strongly in the final 100m to win by just under a length.
In the end it was a comfortable win for the debutante and the 27th for the season for Gollan who wrapped up his eighth Ipswich premiership.
Leading 2023/24 Ipswich apprentice Emily Lang would have been sick of the sight of Maloney following Wednesday’s meeting.
He got the better of her when Morganite finished second to Dance Wizzard and it was the same result in the Benchmark 78 Handicap three races later.
Lang rode favourite Denied but was upstaged by the fellow Jack Bruce-trained Patton ridden by Maloney.
Patton enjoyed the run of the race, settling fourth behind Denied, Rollinwiththeflow and My Pins.
After those three runners had pestered each other in front, Maloney pulled his mount in the straight and Patton let down strongly to storm past his rivals and win by just under a length.
It was an impressive first-up win for Patton and highlighted Maloney’s experience and skill.
I sound like a broken record every week drawing attention to the incredible record that champion trainer Chris Waller has with bringing horses north from Sydney and them winning first-up at Ipswich and other South-East Queensland tracks.
That was again the case on Wednesday when Reggae Fire enjoyed a change of scenery and easier opposition by winning the 1350m Maiden Handicap.
Of course, it was that man Maloney who was the pilot, and he gave another peach of a ride.
After enjoying a nice run in the second pair, he charged home and looked like he was going to gap them, but leader Betathaneva fought strongly, and the pair went across the line together.
There was less than a nose separating the pair but thankfully it was in Reggae Fire’s favour which landed Maloney a fourth win on the day.
Unfortunately, Sunset Soiree endured a torrid run in the final race of the day to prevent Maloney riding a perfect five from five.
Not to be outdone by the achievement of Maloney, young gun hoop Cody Collis helped himself to a winning treble.
‘Chip’ has been riding in sensational form recently and good judges are predicting a bright future for him.
His ride on the Stu Kendrick-trained Master Showman is testament to that.
Collis settled about five lengths off the lead in the Benchmark 70 Handicap over 1100m.
With traffic in front of him upon straightening things looked grim, but Collis showed a cool ahead beyond his years to slice through a gap late to win by 0.6L.
The talented 3kg claimer opened his account in the race prior with Mahagoni.
The Lindsay Gough-trained gelding settled at the tale of the field before Collis made his run at the Great Northern sign on the home turn.
Mahagoni was still last entering the straight but proved too strong in the closing stages to win by 1.1 lengths.
It was the former David Payne-trained horse’s first win since joining the Gough yard.
Collis took bad luck out of the occasion in the QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap when driving forward from the outside barrier to lead on Golden Decade.
When that happened, the race was as good as over with class prevailing in a length victory.
There is no doubt that the 20-year-old is an exciting talent in the saddle and will ride plenty more winners with the right guidance.
It seems fitting that a rising star and one of Queensland’s best jockeys drew the curtain on yet another successful season at the Ipswich Turf Club.
Our next meeting is on Friday the 2nd of August when we kick off 2024/25.
By Craig Sheppard
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