Travelling from his quiet home base of Wellington in South Australia to the glitter strip of the Gold Coast in Queensland to hopefully have a throw at the stumps to earn Magic Millions riches … that is the mission of trainer Michael Hickmott who has the filly Inhabit set to race in the AQIS, Gold Pearl QTIS race for two-year-olds at the Gold Coast on Saturday.
In all likelihood, the daughter of Stay Inside might need to run first or second to secure a place in the $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic the following week.
Inhabit was a winner on debut when starting at the restrictive odds of $1.70 in the Moorundi Classic, a 900m dash, at Murray Bridge back on October 11 … but she disappointed in her follow-up start, finishing all of 10.33 lengths as a beaten $1.26 favourite behind the Tony and Calvin McEvoy trained Moana Spirit ($4) in a race only contested by three runners.
Moana Spirit has shown she is more than useful, having come out and made it two wins from two starts when winning the Geelong Diamond last weekend, but that ten lengths deficit, which would have been a real worry unless explained away by Hickmott, can be excused for that particular run as Inhabit reported suffered from atrial fibrillation* during the race. (Atrial fibrillation basically amounts to an irregular and disruptive heart rhythm).
But Hickmott had brighter news this week, telling Racing.com … “She’s excellent, I couldn’t be happier with her.
“I’ve travelled a lot of horses to various parts of Australia in my time and rarely have I had one travel as straightforward as her. She’s well-hydrated … she hasn’t left an ounce of feed … she hasn’t taken a step sideways in her work… it’s been remarkable.”
So the Magic Millions dream is alive, and it has an added element to it as Inhabit has an all-female ownership group, which means that, should Inhabit qualify for the Classic, the owners will be chasing two prize-money hauls … the huge main prize-money pool and the separate Woman’s Bonus which has a share of $500 000 on offer for the first four all female owned runners to cross the line.
