Jason Collett capped off a stellar day at headquarters with three winners, rounding it out by claiming the feature Civic Stakes (1400m) aboard emerging talent Headley Grange.
The elite jockey, who has spent much of the winter carnival riding in Queensland, quickly made his presence felt at Saturday’s Randwick meeting.
He opened his account aboard Callistemon in the Midway Handicap (1600m), followed up with a win on Lulumon in the Asahi Super Dry Handicap (1000m), and then secured the prestigious Listed Civic Stakes on Headley Grange, who remains unbeaten through two starts this preparation.
“He’s a nice horse,” Collett said.
“The tempo of that race was different to last start. It was genuinely run. He has quickened off it and then he’s had to tough it out.
“He just found another gear. When they came to him at the 150 (metres) he went again so that’s a really good sign.”
Headley Grange is building an impressive résumé with eight wins from 18 starts. Now that he has successfully stepped into stakes company, trainer Joe Pride is keen to qualify him for the $3 million Big Dance (1600m) on Melbourne Cup Day.
“Nice to see him step up to that higher grade today,” Pride said.
“That’s never easy to do in a high-pressure race with plenty of opposition.
“He’s come back particularly well this preparation and we will go to the South Grafton Cup next. We will try and qualify him for one of the ‘Dances’.”
Pride’s main challenge with the four-year-old has been his tendency to become agitated in the mounting yard. To address this, stewards approved rider changes, allowing Collett to mount just before the field headed to the track—an adjustment that clearly paid off.
“That’s what was needed and it worked. He stayed relaxed,” Collett said.
Trailing at a strong tempo, Headley Grange ($2.45 fav) peeled around the leaders in the straight and dug deep to win by a half-length over the fast-finishing Welwal ($26), with Astero ($51) another three-quarters of a length back in third.
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