Pike steers Tick Tick Bloom home
Tick Tick Bloom produced an astonishing finishing burst to deliver leading trainer Adam Durrant back-to-back wins in the $100,000 WAROA Belmont Guineas (1600m) today.
Stranded at the tail of the 15-horse field approaching the turn, Tick Tick Bloom’s chances appeared slim.
But with the aid of a brilliant ride by jockey William Pike, the promising filly rocketed home down the outside to nail Midnight Shimmer by a nose on the line.
Happy With Kendel ($21), who loomed alongside Midnight Shimmer ($11) to share the lead in the concluding stages, ran third, beaten a half-head.
Dabang ($21) finished fourth, beaten ¾ of a length.
Punters deserted Tick Tick Bloom despite her impressive form. She drifted to $5.50 on course as Bayatorio ($5-$4.20) snatched favouritism.
Bayatorio settled fourth but faded in the straight, running eighth.
Tick Tick Bloom ploughed through heavy rain to notch a winning hat-trick.
Durrant, who is on holiday in Europe, won the Listed feature with Summah’s Touch last year.
“It was very impressive,” Durrant’s stable foreman Jason Miller said.
“I thought she had no hope on the turn.
“With the wide draw our confidence wasn’t high. We knew she’d have to give them about eight lengths on the turn.
“She was stepping up from midweek company in a tough field but she’s adapted and won well.”
Durrant will set Tick Tick Bloom to emulate Summah’s Touch’s hat-trick of Belmont feature wins, with the $100,000 Belmont Oaks (2000m) in a fortnight and $100,000 Belmont Classic (2200m) in a month.
Tick Tick Bloom helped a young group of breeders realise their dream.
The daughter of Viscount was bred by mining mates Daniel Palmateer, Glenn McNally, Ryan Hopkinson and Jason McGuire.
They are all part-owners in the filly, along with Dean Bailey, Dan Karic and Ann-Maree Harvey.
“We just wanted a half-decent horse and to get one as good as this is unbelievable,” McNally said.
“She is the second foal out of Eight Roses. The first one (Fly Like Pegasus) isn’t much good and is going around in Kalgoorlie.”
Meanwhile, trainer Neville Parnham and his jockey son, Brad, combined to score a double with promising filly Top Show and Dominating.
Top Show capped her impressive campaign with a dominant 1 ½ length win over Keysbrook in the Westspeed Nursery (1600m).
“She will go to the paddock now,” Neville Parnham said.
“She’s shown me enough now to set her for the three-year-old features at Ascot.
“The Champion Fillies should be a nice race for her.”
Dominating bounced back from a last-start flop to claim the scalp of the in-form Trading Day, beating him by ¾ of a length in the Perth Racing VIP Package Handicap (1400m).
“I don’t know what happened to him last start. He just switched off,” Parnham said.
“He came here on Tuesday and ran real good time. I told Brad he wouldn’t be beaten on that work.”
