Newcastle preview: Nickson calls up ‘Miss 33 per cent’ for Zale

Boom apprentice Molly Bourke can boost her incredible winning strike-rate on Gary Nickson-trained horses when she hops aboard the luckless but talented galloper Zale at Newcastle on Tuesday.

Molly Bourke will do her best to coax a well-earned first win out of Zale at Newcastle on Tuesday

Gary Nickson has called on the jockey who wins at a phenomenal 33 per cent strike-rate to coax a first win out of the stable’s unluckiest resident, Zale, at Newcastle on Tuesday.

Enter, boom apprentice Molly Bourke, who is building-up a huge fan base among trainers with Nickson chief among the ticket-holders.

“I booked Molly a couple of times to ride Felix Majestic in black-type non-claiming races, that’s how much I think of her,’’ Nickson says.

“What you see is what you get. She is a real, pleasant, bright little kid.

“She doesn’t make out she knows more than she does and the best part about it is, she follows instructions to the tee and if anything goes wrong, it’s my fault not hers.

“Honestly, a couple of horses she rode for me haven’t been easy horses to ride but she ridden them and won on them.

“Horses really travel for her, I don’t know what it is but horses travel for her.

“She doesn’t pull ‘em about and knock them around and half-pie man-handle them if it is a bit of a scrimmage or you’re stuck in the middle of the field and you’re getting on heels,’’ Nickson said.

Bourke’s record on Nickson-trained horses is 12 rides for four wins (33.3 percent) and 3 placings.

Bourke has the chance to increase her tally by one on Tuesday but only if the fortune-lacking gelding Zale can overcome his wide alley and his rivals in the Lees Racing Maiden Plate (1400m).

“Zale should be hard to beat,’’ Nickson told The Daily Telegraph. “He is knocking on the door.

“He has been a bit unlucky (but) he makes it hard for himself because he gets back but on Tuesday we are going to ride him no worse than midfield hopefully.’’

Keagan Latham has ridden Zale at four of his 11 starts and lent his insight into how best to bring on that first well-earned win subsequent to that last start third at Hawkesbury on June 25.

“Keagan said to me ‘he’s got a lot of ability, definitely a midweeker’, and said he should have won a race by now, the time has come to stick some blinkers on him so he is having blinkers on,’’ Nickson revealed.

Zale will have company on the float from Warwick Farm to Newcastle on Tuesday from Doola Teela whom Nickson is forecasting a better run than her $34 TAB Fixed Odds quote would suggest.

“Disregard her last run or two, we tried to see if she can get over ground and she can’t,’’ he said.

“Her best runs are at 1400m and ridden forward. Also besides that, we had a little vet work done which she required which I think is going to make a big difference so I am hoping to see a forward showing on Tuesday as long as the track is not too bad.

“I just hoping she comes down the outside and she might run a place at huge odds.’’

Doola Teela’s resume (at present at least) casts her as a mere Class 2 galloper with a paltry Benchmark rating of 49.

Neither of which reflects her true worth, as a broodmare, given her black-type fourth in the 2021 Listed ATC Lonhro Plate (1000m) just two weeks after she debuted at Royal Randwick on the race won by subsequent Golden Slipper winner, Stay Inside.

Sadly the hot streak of Nickson trained, Bourke ridden galloper One Destiny has come to a temporary end as a relieved trained explained.

“Three or four days after he won, he took ill and he had a major operation for a twisted bowel and a dislocated colon and he won’t be back at the track for six months

“It was touch and go for there a while. We are lucky to still have him.’’

Trainer Jason Coyle. Picture: Bradley Photos

FRIDAY NIGHTS CALLING FOR COYLE MARE

Friday night specialist Jason Coyle is counting down the months to the return of summer racing at Canterbury and reckons he has the perfect candidate waiting in the wings in Maz Kanata.

No one is better placed to make the assessment than Coyle, who trained the mare’s sire, Va Pensiero, and her dam, Mari Pintau.

The Coyle-bred Maz Kanata is putting together a tidy CV which she can bolster if she performs to expectation in Tuesday’s The Prince Of Merewether Midway Class 1 Handicap (1200m) at Newcastle.

“She is the sort of horse that begins well, can relax in transit relatively well and then she has got a bit of ticker there which is nice given the fact that every time we have sent her around, she hasn’t been far off them,’’ Coyle says.

“She is building a nice record and if she can continue that, maybe she gets an opportunity this preparation, if not this prep, you would think that off the back of a break, could come in through those summer months and run around in fillies and mares midweek or Friday nights and be more than capable.’’

Coyle saddles-up two others at Newcastle on Tuesday namely the 56 start veteran Chateaux Park and his more sparingly-raced stablemate Can Expect Greater.

New Zealand-bred Chateaux Park has 23 podium finishes on the scoreboard, only five of them wins.

“ I feel he has been racing really well with no luck whatsoever,’’ Coyle told The Daily Telegraph.

“He could have easily won a race or two this prep but hopefully we have found the right one on Tuesday. He doesn’t have a lot of tactical speed and most of his best runs are ridden that little bit conservative.

“Hopefully the small field suits us and the tempo is right for him, that’s probably the two key factors. If things fall into place for him it definitely looks the sort that he can knock over.’’

Can Expect Greater meanwhile, looks both ready and able to build on her current PB set at Wyong last start over 1350m ahead of Tuesday’s step up to 1400m.

“She is going a lot better than her form suggests,’’ trainer Coyle said.

“If you go through it, you can see that she has failed on those Heavy tracks that we encountered and that was the reason for going five weeks between runs the other day, we just couldn’t get her back on top of the ground.

“We got a better surface and we got a better result.”

Originally published as Newcastle preview: Nickson calls up ‘Miss 33 per cent’ for Zale