You can turn over the page for the New Year … and put this horses name in the notebook.
There is a story to tell behind the Matthew Hoysted trained Pickabae’s arrival as a facile winner on debut at Ipswich on December 27. A glance at the formbook of this half-sister to the Group 1 winner Uncommon James will tell you that.
The daughter of Capitalist was sent into race action for the first time as a four-year-old, a full eleven months after she was given her first trial back on January 16, 2024.
She was unplaced in that trial, but then won her second trial on February 6. At that stage she was still trained by the Steven O’Dea / Matthew Hoysted training partnership.
It would be a full eight months before Pickabae would re-emerge, winning another trial on October 22, this time in the sole care of Hoysted with O’Dea having departed the training ranks.
Then it was on to her first race-day, where Pickabae excelled, never giving the punters who took the short starting price of $1.65 any concerns in the run. The result that was never in doubt, achieved under a confident ride from Nikita Beriman, who had ridden Pickabae in her latest trial.
But, getting to this stage, has been a steep test of patience on the part of Hoysted.
“She has been pretty frustrating, because she has always shown that level of ability from day one,” acknowledged Hoysted, “but she is a big girl, and she just had a few soundness issues.
“She had quite immature knees and that just required a bit of time.
“We’ve also had a lot of barrier issues with her as well. Once she is in the gates, she is fine but getting her into the gates has always been a bit of an issue, so that’s played a part in delaying things.
“It’s always hard when you know what you have got but can’t get them to the races. Yeah, it has just been a patience thing.
“Like I said, she is a big girl and, now that we’ve given her the required time to really furnish, I think we are going to be repaid for that.
“She is a half-sister to Uncommon James,” continued Hoysted. “He’s got a good nature about him.
“Pickabae had probably thrown a bit more to her mum (Pickabee). Her mum was a bit funny. Obviously, Caitlin (Hoysted’s wife) trained Pickabee, so we know a bit about her. She could have her moments at times.
“There have been plenty of people behind the scenes involved with Pickabae. Obviously, my stable staff … Pete McMahon at Kilora Lodge and Cam Bond from Kenmore Lodge … they’ve put a lot of work into her to really help her and with time and maturity we can see her really move forward.
“To be honest, we thought if she got in the gates at Ipswich she’d be winning, but there is obviously always that slight concern whether they can do what you know they are capable of under race conditions … so, definitely, it was a relief to see her win like that.
“It was a pretty easy watch once she pinged and was able to get across as easily as she did. I knew then that she would take a bit of running down … and she did it nice and comfortably in the end. Hopefully there is more in store.
“There are a couple of races we have in mind for her now but, if she puts her hand up this week and says she has had enough, she’ll be straight in the paddock.
“We’ll have no issue in doing that. We’ll just let her tell us in the next week and go from there.
“The ability is there and hopefully we can now see her put it all together.”
