Swing Note Delivers Perfect Pick Me Up

The Informant reports:

A sad day for the powerful Te Akau Racing team ended on a high this afternoon as Swing Note earned her first stakes win in the Listed Christchurch Casino Spring Classic at Riccarton.

“It was a brilliant end to finish a very, very sad day for us,” Te Akau principal David Ellis said.

“It started at the track this morning at Matamata, where two of our horses had a serious accident and had to be put down. Seirios, who'd been racing in good form, lost his rider Cyrille Leveque and he collided with Live Wire, one of the most up-and-coming fillies we had in the stable.

“We were so lucky that neither jockey was hurt. Jordan Nason was riding Live Wire and after dropping Cyrille, Seirios turned around and bolted the other way into Live Wire.

“So we started the day really badly, and then our first horse at Trentham, Total Excess, was unloaded from the starting gates and scratched. And to finish a very eventful day with Swing Note winning a stakes race, and In A Twinkling finishing second in the Zacinto Stakes, was one of the most exciting thrills and pick-me-ups I've had in racing.”

Ridden by Shafiq Rusof, Swing Note dived through between the Valachi Downs pair of Zentessa and The Heiress to score by a half-neck in an exciting finish to the 2000-metre Spring Classic.

Swing Note has now had 16 starts for four wins, five placings and more than $78,250 in prize-money. The daughter of Encosta de Lago was bought for A$60,000 at the 2016 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Today's black-type breakthrough follows a series of close-up performances at stakes level, including a third in the Listed Zacinto Stakes and fourth in the Gr. 3 Lowland Stakes.

It was the seventh stakes win this season for trainer Jamie Richards, who extended his premiership lead to 12 with 32 winners so far in the 2018-19 season.