RACING
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Mudgee trainer Max Crockett celebrated his first win since recovering back surgery, when his runner Your One And Only took out the Maiden Plate (1600m) on Sunday.
Crockett said he thought the four-year-old, bay mare “was a good thing in the race” beforehand and jockey Mathew Cahill delivered on that promise.
“I thought it was a very good ride, she usually gets further back, but I said don’t use the whip too much just a nice little crack to keep her mind on the job because she can get lazy,” he said.
“But [Cahill] rode her a bit better than I thought he would, he had her up in front of a few most of the way, gave her a couple of taps with the whip and she responded.”
Crockett is up and about again with only the occasional aid of his walking stick after surgery on his broken back getting run down by horses.
He credits wife Cheryl for not only keeping him going but also working with his horses.
“I’ve been pretty bad over the last few months but I’m getting about a bit better now,” he said.
“I only keep four horses in work at the moment, my son [Cameron] has got a few but my wife likes looking after my horses feeding them and she knows how I like to work them.
“She’s carried me through and I give her a lot of credit for that horse winning that race, she’s been the backbone for me and she loves doing the job.
“She’s doing great, I’ve got three others that could all probably win a race and she looks after them, feeds them well and helps me with their work.
“I probably wouldn’t have carried on if it wasn’t for her.”
Your One and Only had last had a run on December 4 and Crockett said that coming back from a spell she was only lightly worked and very fresh.
“It was a long time between runs [nine weeks] because I don’t like her on a wet track – she doesn’t like them,” he said.
“I don’t worry about that because I kept her in nice short sprint work to keep the freshness in her legs.
“She’s a ballet dancer not a frontrow forward, so I didn’t have to worry about runs under her belt because she doesn’t get fat quickly.
“She’s athletic and got bit of turn of foot in the last 400m and she’s proved that.”
He added that track on Sunday played a part.
“If the track would have been slow I wouldn’t have started it, but I knew it was going to be good because we work on it a couple of times per week and I’d never seen the Mudgee track in such great order,” he said. “It’s a credit to the club.
“All the jockeys I spoke to before the race all said the same.
“There wasn’t any bias you could race anywhere on it.”
The Mudgee trainer said that for Your One And Only the plan is to keep her proving herself to see if she’s ready to step up any grades.
“I think I’ll keep spacing her races a bit, she’s proved that likes that, fresh her up for about three weeks and find another race for her somewhere in her own grade around the bush,” he said.
“And if she’s going onto better things we’ll let her prove it before we step any higher.
“I’d like to be able to keep Mathew Cahill on her back
“He rode her well. He said ‘she’s a nice mare and did everything I asked of her’.”