Racing: Veteran carries eighth apprentice to first victory

Joe Nishizuka won aboard No Loitering. Photo / Supplied

Veteran galloper No Loitering has helped so many young apprentice jockeys, he should come with learner’s plates.

The 11-year-old is one of the oldest flat gallopers in the country and definitely the oldest still regularly competitive in open handicaps, as he showed winning at Pukekohe on Saturday.

No Loitering recorded his 11th win in a 95-start career for trainer Iain Marks, and while he is nearing $300,000 in stakes, he will be remembered for more than money by a series of young jockeys.

No Loitering, who finished last in his first race and took 15 months to leave maidens, has only ever won when ridden by an apprentice, with eight young riders tasting success aboard him.

On Saturday, it was the turn of 20-year-old Joe Nishizuka, who recorded his first career victory on a horse who started racing when Nishizuka was 13 years old.

Jasmine Fawcett, Darren Danis (three wins), Erin Leighton (two), Tegan Abel, Eilish McCall (now Bragg), Niranjan Parmar and Kelsey Hannan have previously used their apprentice allowances to find No Loitering a pathway to the winner’s circle.

Winter break

Pukekohe’s massive season as the stand-in track for Ellerslie is almost over. The weekend’s meeting was the last Saturday programmed there until October 28, with a Wednesday fixture on June 21 scheduled in between.

The venue has done an incredible job hosting major meetings such as Boxing Day, the Karaka Million and Auckland Cup, and the surface has handled the workload well.

One jockey who will miss the regular Pukekohe racing is Warren Kennedy, with the South African riding another two winners on Saturday.

His strike rate of 24 wins from 86 rides at Pukekohe, a winner every 3.6 rides, is something rarely seen on a major track here.

Turning the page 

Solidify’s luckless defeat in Brisbane on Saturday has done little to dent trainer Graeme Rogerson’s confidence. The Waikato juvenile got buffeted for the first half of the Eagle Farm straight in the A$1 million Sires’ Produce, so jockey Ryan Elliot didn’t ride him out when it was clear he couldn’t run in the money.

“The check he got cost him more than he got beaten by,” said Rogerson.

Australian bookmakers share Rogerson’s confidence that Solidify needs only luck to be a factor in his next assignment, the A$1m JJ Atkins on June 10, with the colt still in markets as a realistic chance at $11.

“That is where he is heading next and he can win it,” says Rogerson.