Jockey Ashley Morgan’s breakout year continues to gather steam with the Welsh-born jockey adding the $500,000 The Coast at Gosford to his growing list of feature race wins.
Alongside his partnership with rising sprint star Private Harry, who he has guided to lucrative victories in the $3 million The Sunlight (1100m) and Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m), Morgan has also collected the $1 million Provincial-Midway Championships Final on Matcha Latte in the past five months.
On Saturday, he added The Coast (1600m) to his burgeoning CV, picking up the mount on the in-form Know Thyself after regular rider Aaron Bullock was unable to make the gelding’s 53kg weight.
“It’s Aaron’s horse and he’s done all the hard work. I was just benefitting because I can get a bit lighter,” Morgan said.
“He’s a lovely horse. He was begging for a bum in the run. He really switched off outside the lead.
“I got to Rach (King on leader Townsend) early but I just had to work at him and trust he was fit and he was going to see the mile out well.”
Know Thyself ($2.70 betting fav) did exactly that, surging again when the challengers came to deny Depth Of Character ($4.60) by a length with Mare Of Mt Buller ($9) close-up in third.
It took Know Thyself’s winning streak to four and set him up for a possible tilt at his hometown Scone Cup (1600m) next Friday.
Co-trainer Paul Messara said they would monitor Know Thyself over the coming days before making a final decision but refused to rule it out.
“That (win) will definitely get him in,” Messara said.
“The horse comes first and we’ll just see how he comes through today. It was a solid run today and we want to make sure he’s one hundred per cent before we make that decision.
“We might have a wet week this week in Scone so if it’s a heavy track, we might be tempted to go around.”
The Listed Scone Cup carries a $200,000 prizemoney purse.
