Tigertiger has continued his rise through the grades by taking out the first feature race of the New Year, the Listed Bagot Handicap at Flemington.
A maiden when he arrived in Australia after 12 starts in New Zealand, Tigertiger now has five wins to his credit in nine starts for Mornington trainer Rob Blacker.
Ridden by Daniel Moor, Tigertiger ($10) came from last before the turn in the 2800m contest to register a neck win over Skelm ($5) with Long Arm ($21) a further 2-¼ lengths away third.
Tigertiger has an enviable record for Blacker as along with the five victories he has a further three seconds and a third in his nine starts.
Blacker said Tigertiger arrived in his stable through a close association with the gelding’s former trainer, and current owner, Ian Shaw .
“Ian’s a vet, he trained this horses mother and won a New Zealand Cup with her,” Blacker said.
“He had about four in work, and we’d been watching this horse race over there and saying ‘look at the action on this’ and something happened.
“They were going to send him somewhere for a bit of education, and I rang Adam and said get your dad to send him to me for education.
“It took a bit of negotiating, the Shaw family, they’ve had horses their whole life, so to get them to trust me with their horse, I’m very, very happy, very grateful.”
Blacker said Tigertiger had possibly earned himself a break having originally been earmarked the Group 2 Adelaide Cup (3200m) at Morphettville in March.
Instead, Blacker favours bringing the gelding back for a winter campaign in the Banjo Patterson Series.
Rising to the 2800m journey for the first time, Moor was mindful of getting Tigertiger to switch off so he would run the journey right out.
“I was ultra, ultra-patient on him just to make sure he’d run it right out and I thought I might have got there a bit soon, but because he had fresh legs and had done no work in the run, he was strong to the line,” Moor said.
