Christian Reith couldn’t believe he was run down in the All Aged Stakes earlier in the day but the jockey ended the Sydney autumn carnival on a high with victory aboard Tiger Tees in the Hall Mark Stakes.
Reith had earlier partnered the Joe Pride-trained speedster Rain Affair in the Group One All Aged Stakes and was left shaking his head after superstar filly Atlantic Jewel chased him down in the straight to win by 1-1/4-lengths.
Reith and Pride combined again with Tiger Tees ($9) who resumed in the Listed 1200m contest and produced a courageous performance to hold out the fast-finishing favourite Pinwheel ($3.90) by a short head with half a head to stablemate Neeson ($5) in third.
“It’s a great way to finish the carnival,” Reith said.
“Once he finds the front he’s like a bulldog and doesn’t let them past him.
“It’s good to have him back at the races and he’s going great guns.”
Tiger Tees hadn’t started since early January and took his record to seven wins from 10 starts.
Pride said the four-year-old would head to the Brisbane winter carnival with the Group One Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) a likely target.
Neeson is also Brisbane-bound for the Group One BTC Cup (1200m) and Group One Doomben 10,000 (1350m).
Pride had three runners in the Hall Mark and was determined to finish the carnival with a winner having won the same race last year with Ladys Angel.
During the carnival Rain Affair had finished second in both the TJ Smith and All Aged at Group One level and stablemate Miss Keepsake was second to More Joyous in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes.
“I deserve something over the carnival. I’ve been all around the money and couldn’t have been closer,” Pride said.
“That was a good effort today because he was poorly weighted (with 57kg).
“He’s going to head north to Brisbane, possibly not at his next start, but I’ll certainly be taking him there some time through the carnival.”
