An unwanted trend well and truly disrupted, a second city double, and a riding claim reduced.
‘Quietly momentous’ might be the best way to describe last Saturday’s Morphettville Parks meeting for apprentice jockey Teagan Voorham.
“The last couple months have been on the quieter side,” Teagan said this week.
“So I was stoked with the results…”
Claiming 3kg, Teagan produced excellent front-running rides to salute aboard Savatoxl and City Beats. The double followed something of a drought-breaking metropolitan win aboard Journica in the amended seven-race card at the same track just five days earlier.
Teagan conceded that pressure had been building as she chased her elusive metropolitan milestone.
“I only had two wins to go before I lost my 3kg and Journica knocked one of them off for me,” she said.
“But before that, I’d sort of been sitting on that two since about April, which has been a bit frustrating.
“So, it’s good to finally get rid of it and knock off my 3kg claim. I’m down to 2kg now and hopefully that’s the monkey off my back.”
Teagan’s ride on City Beats will forever be memorable for trainer Damien Boyle, who celebrated his first winner as trainer. Damien, stable foreman for Gordon Richards Racing, was full of praise for Teagan’s ride on City Beats, which led for most of the race and fended off a late challenge from Back Pocket.
“Our plan was to go forward and she rode it a treat,” Damien said.
“He’s one paced, he doesn’t have a turn of foot. He needs to either be leading, or right with them at the top of the turn, otherwise a horse with a turn of foot will run past him.”
Teagan, 24, was equally thrilled to deliver an important victory for the rookie trainer.
“Damien’s a great bloke,” she said.
“I do a lot of work each morning with Gordon and his team, and Damien’s always been really good, so to get his first win was even better.”
Teagan was also riding to instructions aboard Savatoxl, the former Northern Territory horse who impressed in his first SA start, running third in the Balaklava Cup, before a pair of eighth-place finishes in Melbourne, including in a Group 3 event.
“The intention with McEvoys’ horse was to always lead, being from Darwin,” she explained.
“The owners just wanted to let him run and Tony’s instructions were to have some fun, so we rolled with that, and it suited the horse really well.
“But full credit to Tony and Calvin – great training performance.”
Relieved to now be a ‘2kg claimer’, Teagan – who is indentured to Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas – is banking on the past few days being a welcome momentum builder.
“It definitely gives you more confidence when you ride winners,” she said.
“So hopefully we can keep the ball rolling.”
