Magic Millions 3YO Guineas winner Eleven Eleven added another feature to his impressive resume when he stormed home at Wyong on Wednesday to win the Magic Millions Wyong 3YO & 4YO Stakes (1200m).
With Keagan Latham in the saddle, Eleven Eleven overcame a wide run and in the end scored a soft win.
The well related four-year-old gelded son of Fastnet Rock sent his earnings past A$1.4 million with the strong win.
Keagan Latham wins the feature on Eleven Eleven (Pic – Wyong Race Club Twitter)
Eleven Eleven was a A$230,000 Gold Coast Yearling Sale buy in 2018 for trainer Greg Hickman from the draft of Edinburgh Park.
“I’ll probably give him one more run and see how he pulls up before going up to the Gold Coast again,” Hickman said.
Racenet reports that Keagan Latham has ridden in more international racing jurisdictions than most, but the popular rider will be forever thankful to Australia for saving his career.
Latham started out as an apprentice to champion South African trainer Mike de Kock and prior to arriving in Australia rode in South Africa, Ireland, England, France, Hong Kong, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Mauritius and Zimbabwe.
“Towards the end of 2016 I was thinking about pulling the pin on my career,” Latham said.
“I went back to England for a second stint and I just could not get going. It didn’t matter what I did, what I tried, who I rode for – just couldn’t get going.
“I thought ‘I’m done with it now’. I’d lost the hunger, the will to win. When people have no faith in you, you lose that faith in yourself.
“I was filthy with how my career had gone from high to low – I wanted nothing to do with racing anymore.
“I was looking at other options for the rest of my life, car salesman, motorcycle salesman, plumber, electrician whatever you like. I was looking at careers that were easy enough to slip into after doing the relevant study.
“My wife (Nancy), my girlfriend at the time, suggested I look to Australia. Go and ride work for a while, refresh your mind and then come back to England and re-evaluate. If you want to still pull the pin then fine.
“I came here, rode work for Gai for a couple of months and thankfully she gave me a winner at my first meeting and it has just snowballed from there.
“I just wish I’d have come here many, many years ago. Australia has been very good to me.”
Since then, Latham’s profile has continued to build and the momentum has grown with the 32-year-old booting home more than his share of winners, mainly on the provincial circuit.
Fifty-two winners during 2018/19 grew to 86 last season and less than halfway through 2020/21 – Latham has ridden 34 winners from less than 200 rides at better than 17 percent winners to rides.
“It’s a high ladder but we are climbing it steady and have been getting a lot of great opportunities,” he said.
File pic flashback – Keagan Latham, Muis Roberts and his daughter, Carol.
“It’s quite a fine line that I’m sitting on. Some might say I’m sitting on the fence but you can fall either way.On the provincial circuit, I’m doing very well. I get a lot of good rides on a Saturday when all the city boys are in town and I’m riding my fair share of winners. It’s fair to say I’ve established myself pretty well on the provincial circuit but I’d be an idiot to say I wouldn’t love to be in the city. I think I’m good enough to be among the big boys and I’ve always found the tougher the competition the better you perform and the quicker you learn. Better horses, better jockeys and you raise your game.
“I would like to be able to start to get a few more opportunities in the city but it’s a fine line because you still need to be getting on the right types of horses. I wouldn’t want to be going to town and making up the numbers, been there and done that and don’t fancy going there again. It would be a risk to give up what I’ve built in the provincial circuit but that is something I’ll evaluate in the months ahead as the opportunities present. Hopefully things just keep getting better and better.”
- racenet.com.au
