Jockey Teodore Nugent notched his maiden Gr1 win at Caulfield on Saturday when star three-year-old colt Portland Sky scored a brave dead heat win in the Oakleigh Plate.
At his first ever ride at racing’s elite level, Nugent was able to hit the line locked together with William Pike aboard the Bob Peters bred and owned Celebrity Queen.
Portland Sky (Deep Field – Rumba) ridden by Teodore Nugent (navy blue & torquoise cap) and Celebrity Queen (Redoute’s Choice) ridden by Willy Pike (quartered cap – on the rails) DEADHEAT for first in the (g1) Oakleigh plate.
Blue Diamond Stakes Day at Caulfield Racecourse. 20 February 2021 © The Image is Everything – Bronwen Healy & Darren Tindale Photography
Photo: Darren Tindale – The Image is Everything
It was a unique result indeed with the dead heaters flying the flag for Western Australia – Portland Sky bred in the west by Anita Vale Stud.
Portland Sky, an A$85,000 Perth Yearling Sale purchase for trainer Matt Laurie from the Alwyn Park Stud draft, is a rising star among three-year-olds in Australia.
The Deep Field colt was a group winner either side of a down the track effort at Eagle Farm when on a Magic Millions Guineas campaign.
With the Queensland campaign aborted after the Eagle Farm run, Portland Sky returned to Victoria and he’s since won the Gr3 Manfred Stakes and now a dead heat win in the Oakleigh Plate.
“I’m more than happy to share this,” a delighted Matt Laurie said. “I wasn’t sure (if he did enough) but the horse went enormous and I couldn’t be more proud of the horse and the team.”
“I’m extremely happy for Teo,” Laurie added. “It’s just a fantastic result.”
For Nugent, the excitement of a first Gr1 victory left the talented young hoop the happiest man on course.
“It seemed a long way from the post from the 50 (metre mark) when I heard the Wizard (Pike) blowing down my neck.”
“My horse took me a long way into it and full credit to Matt Laurie and the team for bringing the horse here today and we’ll share a dead heat.”
“He had a great turn of foot when I asked him. He’s got some great form around him with Tagaloa and Aysar.”
“I’m so thrilled,” Nugent added. “I’ve got a big team behind me and while it was a dead heat, it was a Group One at the end of the day and the emotions are coming.”
Portland Sky now joins the likes of Scenic Shot, Ancient Song and Elite Street as Group One winners bred by Robert and Ann Anderson’s Anita Vale Stud at Mardella in Western Australia.
The Anderson’s sold the colt through the draft of John Andrew’s Alwyn Park Stud at the first Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale in the new Swan Valley complex in 2019.
Portland Sky is the first Gr1 winner for leading sire Deep Field and is from a lightly raced daughter of Shrewd Rhythm who is a half sister to London Line (later Most Beautiful in Hong Kong).
The Anita Vale Stud bred star Scenic Shot is a half brother to Portland Sky’s second dam Line of Flight.
Thoroughbrednews reported that Perth visitor Celebrity Queen added to the Gr1 haul of trainers Grant and Alana Williams and jockey Willie Pike.
Pike stayed to the inside, one place most of the riders had been reluctant to go during the day.
“With the day I’m having I’m pretty happy to share one,” Pike said.
“The other end is a second, so I’ll take this.
“I was trying to steer away from the inside but I couldn’t find the way out to the middle of the track so just went where I had to. She was very brave right thought the line and attacked every bit to it.”
Grant Williams said Celebrity Queen had risen to a new level in sharing the prize.
“She’s been such a trier, very rarely she gets beaten and she always has a crack,” Williams said.
“I thought, watching the race, we had just got there, but when I saw the slo-mo I thought we’d lost.
“So, it was a weird feeling because I’d thought we’d lost so I’ll take a dead-heat any day.”
