Antarctic Miss Drags 'forgotten' Childs In From The Cold
Sun Herald
Sunday September 16, 2007
IT WAS hard to mistake the sense of relief on the face of jockey Greg Childs yesterday after he scored his first city win since returning to the saddle last month on Antarctic Miss in the group 3 Champagne Stakes.
Childs was badly injured in a track accident in Brisbane during the winter carnival and was sidelined for three months. But yesterday he showed he'd lost none of the skills required at the top level of race riding."It's been hard, very, very hard to get back and get some good rides," the New Zealander said. "I've lost a number of strong mounts and it's the old equation: poor rides, no winners and you're back in the ruck. "You have to work hard in this game. Everyone has the equal opportunity but the stronger the rides you gain the better chance you've got of being noticed." Antarctic Miss is trained by Nigel Sutcliffe the one-time foreman for Mike Moroney at Flemington. "It's quite ironic, I rode Mike Moroney's first winner in the old days and now I've ridden Nigel's first winner at Geelong the other day, and to be aboard his first group winner is a great thrill," Childs said Sutcliffe, who has nine horses in work at his Geelong stable, has had only two winners since taking out his licence and they were both with Antarctic Miss - at Geelong and now at Moonee Valley. "I came to get the filly when I met her connections at the New Zealand sales last year," he said."Antarctic Miss was due to fly out to Adelaide with a David Hayes consignment, but after some fast talking I managed to keep the filly." Antarctic Miss will be aimed at the group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield next month. Bel Mer, which raced in the box seat behind the leader yesterday, worked home solidly to finish second, but could not counter Antarctic Miss's winning sprint. "She's now looking for 1400m or beyond, but we just found the winner too good on the day," Bel Mer's jockey Craig Newitt said. The Hayes-trained Gladwell, which was the medium of a betting plunge, firming from $5.50 into $4.20 favourite, also finished off nicely. Another Hayes runner, Arcadia, was trapped three wide before battling into fourth place. Antarctic Miss was friendless in betting, drifting from $10 to $16 before scoring by a half-length from Bel Mer ($4.40), with Gladwell a half-neck away third.
© 2007 Sun Herald