Taree preview: Kurt Goldman’s Tickler on track for Country Championships goal
Trainer Kurt Goldman has a date with destiny as his promising gelding heads towards next month’s Country Championship heat.
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Valentine’s Day will take on a special meaning for a lot of trainers in the South East of the State in 2021, Kurt Goldman included.
February 14 is the date set down for the SERA Country Championships Heat at Nowra where the Goulburn-based Goldman plans to engage his up and coming gelding, Tickler.
A grandson of Bart Cummings’ bonny mare Besame Mucho, Tickler makes his Wagga debut on Tuesday in search of just his second career win, albeit with only a half dozen appearances so far.
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Tickler announced himself by winning at Warwick Farm at his first start on June 8 last year.
His only other run that winter was at Randwick here he finished fourth to boom Godolphin mare, Tailleur.
Winless so far in the summer, Goldman has allowed the son of Deep Field to progress at his own pace given the obvious lure of close to half a million dollars come April 3 at Royal Randwick.
“This preparation has all been based around the Country Championships so we have wanted to build him up slowly obviously out to the 1400m (on Tuesday),” Goldman explained.
“He will run on Tuesday then probably have one more start in between that and the Heat that will be run at Nowra in the middle of February.”
Tickler ran a mighty race at Randwick on Boxing Day when a close-up and diminishing two-lengths fourth to Pinnacle Prince, the same margin as was between him and Kattegat in a hotly contested Summer Sprint on the Moruya Cup Day card soon after.
“I don’t know what happened last start, he was slow away and never really mustered at all. He didn’t really pick up the bridle until the last 600m of the race,” Goldman said.
“It was a little bit out of character. He had a jump-outback at home the other day and was back to his old self.
“Even though he ran well (at Moruya), it left us scratching our heads but we will go to Wagga on Tuesday pretty confident.”
Tickler has had some big name jockeys on his back for a horse with just six starts.
Hugh Bowman rode him on debut followed by Kerrin McEvoy twice, Tim Clark, Sam Clipperton and most recently Kayla Nisbet.
On Tuesday, it is Blaike McDougall’s turn and Goldman probably wouldn’t swap him for any of those above given the current rankings.
McDougall became the first jockey in Australia to reach 100 wins this season when he piloted Royal Thunder home in the Cowra Cup on Sunday.
To put McDougall’s tally into proper perspective, his century came up after 169 days leaving 187 days to chase down a double tonne.
McDougall has a second ride at Wagga for Goldman, namely Underground Music who races in the familiar maroon and white armbands of Wallaby winger Alan Cardy who ran 100m in 10.4s as a schoolboy.
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Originally published as Taree preview: Kurt Goldman’s Tickler on track for Country Championships goal