“Master Jamie is an incredible horse. He has been a good horse for a long time.”
While Rockhampton based trainer Graeme Green has every right to admire the race record of his stable star, Green also deserves full credit himself for his management of the now eighteen-time winner who is closing in on $1 million in prize-money earnings.
Green has targeted the $100,000 Cleveland Bay Handicap in Townsville on Saturday … a race Master Jamie won in 2021 …as the seven-year-old’s gelding’s next mission where a win would take the son of Poet’s Voice through the magical $1 million mark in prize-money earnings.
“We were thinking of stretching Master Jamie out to the Cup distance (of 2000m) in Mackay and then Townsville, but, when he won the Rocky Cup again (over 1600m on July 8), we decided that we would be a kinder to him, drop him back in distance and freshen him up again … same as we did last year for the Cleveland Bay.
“He was very unlucky in that particular Cleveland Bay run. He got caught behind a weakening Marway at the 400m. Marway took him back through the field and he lost about five lengths and got beaten a length-and-a-half.
“So, we’ll be trying again to win the Cleveland Bay for the second time.” (Master Jamie saluted in the 2021 edition of the race).
“Master Jamie is a lovely horse to do anything with. He loves to play,” said Green, giving us more of the Master Jamie’s back-story.
“He is a kind horse to take to the track. When he is working it is serious … it is business. He’ll drop the bit coming back in … but, you have got to watch him.
“He just needs an excuse to get excited and start dancing and jumping all over the place. He is fairly athletic for a big horse. Apart from that, around the stables he is an absolute gentleman.
“That spirit has always been there since he was a two-year-old and it is good that he has still got it.
“Even when you go out on the track on race-day, I love to see him give that bit of a bounce and a half kick … those little quirks … then I know he is on the job.
“At the Rocky Cup the other day, he nearly dropped Bubba Tilley at the 200m in the preliminary. Bubba knew then that he was on song and would be hard to beat.”
“Bubba Tilley clicks with him. They are both different in the head, but there’s a good combination there,” laughed Green.
Tilley has ridden Master Jamie in eleven of the gelding’s eighteen wins.
Tilley was on Master Jamie on five occasions when Master Jamie kicked off his career with six wins in his first seven career starts.
He was on him for another two wins when Master Jamie put in another sequence of four straight wins and, amongst other rides, Tilley also partnered Master Jamie to his double feature race success at Rockhampton in last season’s Queensland Northern Winter Carnival with wins in both the Tattersalls’ Gold Cup and the Rockhampton Cup … and, of course, he was aboard when Master Jamie completed the Rockhampton Cup double early in July this year.
A trainer who understands his horse and a rider who gets on with his horse … that’s half the battle isn’t it?
