Trainer Mark Currie’s plan to target the Weetwood first up with Tavs has paid dividends with an explosive victory at Clifford Park on Saturday.

A plan hatched on Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup Day in June has paid the ultimate dividend after Tavs streaked away with the $160,000 Weetwood Handicap (1200m) on Saturday evening.

Local trainer Mark Currie was quick to put the Weetwood on the agenda for Tavs after the progressive five-year-old finished fourth behind Group-class gallopers Transatlantic and Desert Lightning at Eagle Farm during the Brisbane winter carnival.

And the audacious first up plan came off in the most spectacular fashion on Saturday with Tavs careering away with the showpiece event at Clifford Park in track record time.

“He’s not too bad a horse, this little fella,” Currie said.

“There’s been a few track records here today but to still break the track record makes the win ever better.

“He raced really well all last preparation and after he ran fourth in that listed race at Eagle Farm (in June) he looked a little tired so we put him away with the Weetwood in mind and it has all paid off.

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“He’d been trialling really well and we came here pretty confident and it all came together perfectly.

“Couldn’t be happier. There’s a bit still ahead for this horse.

“We will need to look where we go next now.”

Well-supported in betting during the week to start a $3.80 favourite after as much as $8 was offered when markets first opened, Tavs was ridden to his effortless Weetwood victory by Angela Jones.

In the end it was a demolition job, the five-year-old Dundeel gelding streaking away by an ever widening 4-½ length margin.

The dominance of the win left Jones, who went back-to-back in the Weetwood after scoring last year aboard Hidden Wealth, nearly lost for words.

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“His turn of foot was just amazing,” Jones said.

“Having that underneath you was almost like a race car, I was trying to find the brakes at one stage he was going that well.

“That was probably the ‘funnest’ race I’ve ridden in.

“I could tell he was going better than the field so I took him back and gambled on the worst part of the track on the inside but he was just electric.

“He really is a horse going places. He felt amazing.”

Finishing second in the Weetwood was Nettuno ($11) while Sha Of Gomer ($21) filled third.

Trainer Mark Currie’s day out continued in the final event with Cryptolini taking out the Magic Millions Toowoomba Guineas (1200m).

The son of Encryption made it two for two in the three-year-old feature with Currie declaring post race that he had a bright future.

The Courier Mail
By Adam Dobbin
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