NZ HARNESS NEWS
For a fleeting moment during the serious early stages of Tuesday’s $30,000 Central Otago Trotting Cup, a plan hatched by Brad Mowbray and the connections of Tiger Thompson almost came unstuck.
Because almost immediately following Dexter Dunn’s decision to yield on his challenge for the lead with Tiger Thompson, Matty Williamson felt his charge start to go rough.
Not all that long ago that would have been it for the erratic pacer, but Williamson managed to keep him pacing and allowed Dunn to pass before immediately getting back around him to the front.
“We’d actually held off Dexter’s challenge,” Williamson said.
“But then he got rough and I had to take a bit of a hold on him, but luckily we are to get back out and around him.”
That move proved to be the winning of the race for the talented four-year-old, who set a solid clip before holding off all challenges up the Omakau straight.
“He actually did it pretty well; it was only that last wee bit when they really started to come at him that I had to get serious on him.”
The late surge of Robbie Burns wasn’t enough though and Tiger Thompson claimed victory in the race Mowbray has had on his radar since winter.
The Russley horseman, who is enjoying a great season on the track, gained his first Group race success with the win by Tiger Thompson and, if everything goes to plan, he’ll be shooting for some even bigger prizes later in the season.
“The Taylor Mile and the Messenger are the next aims,” Mowbray said,
“I’d probably like to take him somewhere else before then, but I have to go with him because he’s still a bit of a handful so we might just stick around home and see what we can find at Addington.
“There’s a couple of races there later in the summer that we can look at.”
While plenty of praise is being heaped on the shoulders of Mowbray this season, he was quick to deflect most of it to his wife, Melanie.
“She deserves a lot of credit for the horses; she spends a lot of time with them and working with them.”
A Big Jim four-year-old, Tiger Thompson has now won five of his 18 career starts with more than $94,000 in earnings.
Williamson would end the day with a double after piloting Maidonthebeach to win the last on the card for trainer Hamish Hunter.
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