Caption: Sean Kavanagh with All Zipped Up
West Australian news with JAMES BROADHURST
Wundowie trainer Glen Currie recorded the biggest win of his career when Bones McCoy took out the Group 2 Birthday Cup (405m) at Tabtouch Park Mandurah in mid-January.
Bones McCoy used the rails alley to his full advantage to lead all-the-way and secure victory by half a length in 22.42.
He won the early speed battle with Destruction to snare the front running position before holding out the late charging Sunset Piper in the concluding stages.
Currie, 59, was so overcome with emotion after the race he was almost speechless at the presentation ceremony.
“I had my wife and family there, it was magnificent experience,” he said a few days later.
“The dog did us proud.”
Bones McCoy arrived into Currie’s kennels in October last year on the back of good results in his home state of NSW, where he is raced by a syndicate of owners from the Central Coast firefighting community.
The speedy black chaser only enhanced his status with regular wins over the 405m at Mandurah, including an impressive performance during his heat the week before.
“There were some high expectations on the dog when he came over,” Currie explained.
“And of course there was plenty of interest in him after his heat win.
“The dog didn’t feel the pressure…but I certainly did!”
Currie suggested that Bones McCoy will be stepped up in distance with the aim of having a crack at the Perth Cup over 520m in March.
KAVANAGH’S FEATURE RACE DOUBLE
Up-and-coming trainer Sean Kavanagh began the new year the same way he finished previous one – with a big feature race victory when he took out the Summer Chase final (600m) with All Zipped Up at Cannington on January 8.
All Zipped Up has been a handy performer for Kavanagh across the course of the black chaser’s 70-start career.
Alternating between 520m and 600m races All Zipped Up has produced 16 wins and more than $125,000 in stakes.
All Zipped Up came into the Summer Chase final on the back of a personal best time but he started at odds with Mambo Monelli installed a warm favourite.
Mambo Monelli had clocked a new track record of 34.20 in his heat and was riding high on a four-race winning sequence.
All Zipped Up was able to get the jump on Mambo Monelli in the early stages, however, which proved to be the decisive factor in the race.
From his inside draw All Zipped Up lunched beautifully secure the lead and, just as importantly, the rail.
Mambo Monelli landed on his tail and pressured the leader throughout the journey but All Zipped Up would not yield and he held on to score by just over a length in 34.88.
“He really deserved it,” Kavanagh said of All Zipped Up after the race.
“He’s made a lot of finals before and he’s run second and third, so he’s finally broken through.”
“He doesn’t leave the rails for anything… I think he and Mambo race the same way.
“He blocked Mambo’s run which worked to his advantage.”
All Zipped Up’s triumph came only a couple of weeks after Kavanagh’s success in the Christmas Gift (715m), which he won with his consistent stayer We The People.
We The People showed her typical late race finishing power when she came from last to first to claim the race in 42.16.
The result confirmed We The People as the Cannington Trackstar for 2021 with 14 wins for the year on the city circuit.
