Firsts over jumps at Pakenham

By Brad Kingsbury
HIGHLIGHTS were many at Pakenham’s Queen’s Birthday race meeting, much of the day’s interest surrounding wins by former champion flat jockey (now jumps rider) Patrick Payne and apprentice jockey Ibrahim Gundogdu.
Payne won on threeyearold filly Desert Heiress in his first start over the jumps at the track, while Ibrahim rode his first race winner, despite being hampered by a slipping saddle, when he booted home Partiva in the Class 1 Handicap over 1414 metres.
Two locally prepared horses, John Leek’s Colaton and Derry Downs for Denis Phelan, also saluted the judge first on a track rated slow (level six) in front what was a reasonable crowd considering the bitterly cold and showery conditions. Payne, in his jumping debut at the track, rode his sister Therese Patton’s promising young filly Desert Heiress to victory in the Maiden Hurdle after leading for most of the 2828 metres.
Payne was thrilled with his successful return to Pakenham and said the win was most likely a record.
“It’s my first jumps ride here at Pakenham but I was lucky enough to do quite a few schools at the track for Eric Musgrove last winter for practice. I rode a lot here when I was riding flat races too, so the track’s not unfamiliar to me,” he said.
“It was a good win. She’s a threeyearold filly and I don’t think that’s been done before in Australasia before over jumps.”
Gundogdu turned potential disaster into a stunning win when he hung on to see Partiva home in the fourth race, despite the saddle slipping early in the event.
The teenager was forced to ride up on the neck of the Mick Kenttrained filly but showed superb horsemanship to keep his mount straight and hit the lead with 100 metres to go.
Owners’ representative Craig Arrowsmith praised the youngster.
“Mick gave all the instructions (to Gundogdu) this morning and that’s his first winner after three seconds,” he said.
“Most kids would probably have pulled her up but he’s got enough confidence in his own ability to do the job. That was his first ride for Mick and he’ll make a good little rider one day.”
Leek and his jockey wife Andrea teamed up to win the Novice Hurdle with Colaton, which fought off a strong challenge from Kravitz in the home straight.
“We rode him differently today,” Leek said. “Andrea jumped and hunted him up and let something go around and set the pace. She balanced him up nicely coming to the last hurdle. He’s been dragging himself through them a bit lately but he jumped nicely today.”
“He’ll go into the Australian Steeple next Saturday at Sandown now,” he said.
The other feature of the day was an alltheway victory to Denis Phelan’s Pakenhamtrained gelding Derry Downs in the Class 5 Handicap over 1414 metres, after a daring ride from apprentice jockey Salemon Bin Saad.