By David Nagel
Cranbourne trainer John Gilligan celebrated his first win on his home track in more than six years on Saturday night when Distant Dream stormed to victory in the $40,000 Maiden Plate (1400m).
Gilligan has had rare success with his small team of horses, winning just three picnic races at Woolamai and Balnarring since Don’t Plead Guilty won at Cranbourne on 17 November, 2018.
Distant Dream, a four-year-old bay mare out of Dissident/Can Dream, has been lightly raced after a severe paddock injury kept her off the scenes during an extensive recovery process.
Gilligan said the penny was finally starting to drop after his mare raced clear at the top of the straight and held on for a deserving victory.
“She was a two thousand dollar purchase; she hurt herself early in the piece – you can see a lot of scars on her – she ran through a fence, against a gate,” Gilligan said post-race.
“It took a good eight to nine months (to recover), she had over 100 stitches.
“And she’s just learning the caper now too, this is the first time she’s really put it all together.
“Other times in races she’s just doing things that take away her endeavour to win.
“We always thought she was capable of winning a race; I didn’t think it would be at Cranbourne.
“But now it’s here I’m happy, it’s my home track.”
At first glance, jockey Tianni Chapman appeared to give Distant Dream the perfect route to victory.
Camped off a hot pace, Chapman pushed through a gap on the home turn to open up a winning margin.
But an honest Chapman explained that not everything went according to plan.
“She’s a pretty easy filly to ride, she does everything right, she jumps nicely and you can really put her where you want her to be,” Chapman said.
“We were probably just a pair back further than we wanted to be today, but she switched off beautifully.
“She actually made a noise and hit the brakes at one stage and I got stuck into her and my saddle slipped on the corner.
“I was just trying to keep her out, but she made a gap appear to her credit and she was just too strong in the end.
“She’s just such a push-button horse; hasn’t had any luck yet but she does everything right and a big credit goes to the trainer (Gilligan).”
The Pakenham training combination of Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman kicked off the night in style with their three-year-old Skipjack scoring an impressive victory in the $40,000 BM64 Handicap (1000m).
The son of Rubick/Bonito was given a patient ride by jockey Will Price after jumping slowly from the gates.
Price hunted up on the rails upon turning for home and gained a late split on the fence to win running away from the Matt Laurie-trained leader Sea Mist.
Skipjack has now won two of his first five starts, after scoring on debut at Ballarat in March last year.
