It wasn’t the kind of race line-up you would expect to see on a carnival race-day, but that was no fault of the Tony Pike trained Tutukaka who didn’t raise a sweat in trouncing his four rivals in the Tattersall’s Life Member Stakes over 1830m at the restrictive odds of $1.45 with Sportsbet.
Michael Cahill took the ride in the Covid protocol enforced absence of James McDonald.
The focus on Tutukaka, even if he only needed to do little more than a track gallop to claim victory, arguably makes more interesting reading than the result itself.
Tutukaka (Tavistock) – Meleka Belle) is a half brother to the star performer Melody Belle who, amongst other things, is a fourteen-time Group 1 winner (a New Zealand record), who is the only horse to win the New Zealand Triple Crown and who is a multiple winner of the New Zealand Horse Of The Year Title. Not to mention the fact that Melody Belle was sold for $2.6 million and the recent Magic Millions Broodmare sale.
Those are big shoes to fill, but it only natural that the progress of Melody Belle’s half-brother will be watched with a keen interest.
The Eagle Farm triumph was Tutukaka’s first win in four starts. He finished second in her first two outings (over 1300m and 1400m) and then finished third behind the Volcanic Rock and Verbek in the Listed Phoenix at Eagle Farm (over 1500m) at the start of June.
The gradual step up in distance continued with this win (over 1830m) which was as much part of Tutukaka’s education as it was about the result, but it is important for him to have that win under his belt.
‘He relaxed beautifully,” said stable representative Chris McNab. “That was the plan of attack. Tony (Pike) rung me and said to tell Michael (Cahill) just to take bad luck out of equation … just get him to relax outside the leader.
“They went along at a slow clip, but an even clip. This is the race he came here for, so we couldn’t be happier.
“It was sad for James that he was not on the horse, but Michael does a lot of work for us, so it was a good result. It worked out perfect anyway.
“He’ll go home now. He’ll fly back into Sydney and then go home (to New Zealand) on Tuesday week.
“Tony doesn’t miss anything. He had this race in mind and then on to Melbourne, so we are on track.”
