TEENAGE apprentices Andrew Adkins and Taylor Marshall, outrode their senior and vastly more experienced counterparts to win five of the seven races at Port Macquarie last Tuesday.
Port Macquarie’s Adkins, who rode his first winner only 10 days earlier, landed a double by winning the Stowe Australia Three Year Old Maiden (1200m) in class record time on Stradance and the Carlton Mid Benchmark 65 (1000m) on Yupik.
Stradance is trained by Adkins’ master Marc Quinn, while Yupik is prepared by Neil Godbolt.
Marshall is the son of Melbourne cup winning jockey John Marshall (Rogan Josh for Bart Cummings in 1999) and indentured to Ron Quinton at Randwick.
His treble took his tally to 43 winners, including 17 on provincial tracks, in a career that only started in May last year.
Marshall won the John L. Fisher Plumbing Supplies Maiden (1000m) on Vargo for Taree trainer Cliff Bashford, the Prime7 Benchmark 60 (1500m) on Cracker Night for Quinn and the McGuigan BMW Benchmark 55 (1200m) on Rum Tum Tugger for local trainer Wayne Wilkes.
Adkins also came within a few centimetres of a treble.
He was beaten into second place in a tight photo finish on Red Almighty in the TAB.com.au Class Two (1000m).
The Kris Lees-trained Fimatino (Andrew Gibbons) and Red Almighty, the horse that gave Adkins his first winner earlier this month, hit the line locked together with Fimatino scoring by a short half head.
Gibbons might have denied Adkins his treble but he had reason to smile as he returned to scale.
It was his 36th birthday.
“When I was an apprentice I rode a winner on my 17th birthday but I haven’t done it since,” he said.
Quinn praised the ride by Adkins on Stradance.
“I was a bit worried about the outside barrier but Andrew got her away so quickly he was able to dictate the pace,” Quinn said.
“She had been racing consistently without winning but that will give her a real confidence boost and will do Andrew’s confidence a world of good too.
“It has taken us some time to teach Cracker Night to settle but I think that this time next year he will make a fringe country cups horse.”
Godbolt said he had wanted to give Adkins a ride for the past few months.
“However, I did not have the right horse until now,” he said.
“Yupik can hang and races best when on the fence but I was a bit worried at the 700 metres when Andrew seemed to take hold for a few strides,” Godbolt said.
“Then he got over and got on the fence and I was happy after that.”
Wilkes believes he finally has the aptly named Rum Tum Tugger at a point where he will start to realise his potential.
“He is a four year old having his sixth start but only because he has had one niggling problem after another,” Wilkes said.
“It has been a long, slow process to get him right.”
Rum Tum Tugger is by Old Deuteronomy, both named after characters from the musical Cats.
