21 October 2021 | Duncan Dornauf
He cost $16,000 at the 2020 Carrick Yearling Sale, and on Wednesday night Mickey Oh took his prize-money earnings to just over $48,000 when winning the Group 2 Dandy Patch Final for the Tasbred Two-year-old colts and geldings in Hobart at his fifth race start.
As has been the case in recent starts for the gelded son of Racing Hill, driver Matthew Howlett drove a confident race taking the pacer to the spot outside the leader, and although there was a slight concern for about two strides at the 500m, Matthew didn’t have much to worry about over the concluding stages.
‘He just dropped the bit a little bit, but I clicked him up, and he grabbed it again and was travelling all around the corner,” said Matthew post-race.
Mickey Oh ($1.22 fav) sprinted away when Matthew pulled the earplugs in the home straight to go on and score by 6.7m over Hes Apples ($26) and Pawnbrokers Lad ($101) in a mile rate of 2m 0.8s for the 2090m,
“Its a huge thrill for all of us involved. I couldn’t be prouder,” said Matthew.
And a big team was behind the scene, with the pacer being trained by his father Chris with Braden and Eliza doing their fair share of work behind the scenes, along with loyal stable supporter Justin joining in the post-race celebrations with extended family.
Chris has been involved with some very nice horses in a long career in the industry and admitted he still doesn’t know the limits of this pacer yet.
“I just don’t know how good he is. He is improving all the time, so that’s what you need them to do,” he said post-race.
“We have had interest from interstate to buy him, but we will see what happens,” he added.
With the Launceston Pacing Club significantly changing the conditions of the premier race, the Golden Slipper, Chris confirmed Mickey Oh would head for a break.
“The season is pretty well done. He has won too many races for the Golden Slipper, so we will give him a break. There’s only so many times you can go too well,” Chris said.
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