Angela Jones continues her coming of age winter carnival with smart ride to win Caloundra Cup at Sunshine Coast
A smart ride by Angela Jones proved the difference in the Caloundra Cup with the victory capping a breakout winter carnival.
Horse Racing
Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Angela Jones has capped her meteoric rise from champion apprentice to a fully fledged senior rider with one of the rides of the winter carnival to win the Listed Caloundra Cup at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.
After enjoying a breakout carnival, which saw her win multiple times at stakes level, Jones saved the best for last aboard Mission Of Love in the $300,000 feature, where she had it all to do 600m from home.
While every horse opted to fan wide in search of better ground on the heavy Caloundra track, Jones produced a penny-pinching ride up the inside to race away for trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon aboard the $12 chance, holding off Rachel King on the Bjorn Baker-trained Alegron.
Mission Of Love holds on and wins the Caloundra Cup at double figure odds! 💰
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) July 14, 2024
Angela Jones delivers a peach of a ride ðŸ‘@SymonsLaxonpic.twitter.com/SiAQtpQ6ST
“From the jump it didn’t go to plan because I had in my head that I wanted the fence so I could cut the corner because I had the light weight,” Jones said.
“I was of the opinion that everyone would come out and I thought if you had to be either side of the crown, you wanted to be on the inside.
“I had to give half a length to get back to the rail, but it meant I could save four or five lengths probably.
“She scooted up the inside way quicker than I ever imagined she could and I thought I had gone too early when I hit the front at the top of the straight.”
Jones also scored the last laugh on the home front, delivering a cheeky jab to fiance Kyle Wilson-Taylor in the process.
“I thought this horse would be a chance today and I told Kyle that this morning, he didn’t believe me,” she laughed.
“I am mostly satisfied just to get that right.”
With stablemate Knight’s Choice finishing fourth, Symons said both horses will be campaigned in Victoria over the spring.
“They will both go to the paddock, the other horse (Knight’s Choice) probably didn’t handle (the heavy track), but they will both go down to Melbourne in the spring and see where we end up.
“I don’t know which races or what we are going to do, but we will get them down there and see where we end up.
“We don’t try and win premierships, we try and win these good races, we have been knocking on the door all carnival and today it was our turn.”
Originally published as Angela Jones continues her coming of age winter carnival with smart ride to win Caloundra Cup at Sunshine Coast
VRC launches new Melbourne Cup Day feature
Victoria Racing Club has revamped and prizemoney boosted a popular race on Melbourne Cup Day at Flemington as the new Australian Heritage Cup.
Jobs on the line as government moves to announce review response
Racing Victoria has warned thousands of jobs statewide and $1.2b in economic activity could be lost unless the Federal Government delivers a “sensible” framework in its Gambling Review.