ROBBIE Morris made an auspicious debut at Tamworth Paceway on Wednesday night.
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The 21-year-old Menangle-based driver had four drives and came up with three wins, including the $10,000 The Pub Group Gold Nugget (2360m) aboard Karloo Mick.
The 12-year-old marvel almost certainly made his first and last appearance at Tamworth winning the Gold Nugget by 17.25m in a mile rate of 1:59.4, just a whisker outside Enjay Cam’s 1:59.3 track record.
“If I’d have known that I’d have got Robbie (driver Robbie Morris) to hustle him up more,” Dubbo owner-trainer Barry Lew after his amazing gelding had struck gold.
“That’s the last time you might have seen him in the north west districts too,” he added.
“I’ll probably retire him next year.”
Finding races for his gelding, who has now won 64 of his 158 starts, is almost impossible.
“There was only this race (Gold Nugget) and a $1500 race at Temora for him,” he said.
“It’s a joke.”
Karloo Mick heads to Menangle on Saturday week for the Australia Day Cup and then returns there for the heats of the Inter Dominion.
Lew isn’t confident Karloo Mick will make the final but has a Plan B with a $100,000 Cup race on the same night as the Inter Dominion Final if he fails to measure up.
Lew is philosophical about that.
Karloo Mick is good but he thinks his days of running big seconds in Miracle Miles and Inter Dominion Finals might be behind him.
Morris will drive him in the Australia Day Cup as well as the Inter Dominion for Barry and Ronda Lew.
“I’ve driven in Inter Dominion heats but never a final,” Morris said on Wednesday night after Karloo Mick had given him his first winner at Tamworth Paceway.
“I probably should have had a winner before this too.
“I drove it pretty ordinary.”
That was the Mark Callaghan-trained Rai Waka Falcon, which was second to Due Cause in the Southgate Inn Pace.
“He just needed one to get his eye in,” Callaghan joked after Morris had “made up” for that defeat by winning with Gotta Go Lucky in the $7000 Bill Chambers Pace Final.
Morris had gone to the front from his outside draw on the front of the mobile and rated the six-year-old mare perfectly.
The race before he had made it a running double when he won on the Roy Roots senior-trained Rocknroll Diva in the Stuie French Pickers Pace (1980m).
“Roy was one of the first people to put me on when I was a young driver,” Morris recalled.
“He does a great job and is a very good judge.”
A race later and the trio of wins had materialised with Gotta Go Lucky.
“He’s a confident driver,” Callaghan said.
Moonbi trainer-driver Dean Chapple also yelled out congratulations to Morris after his treble.
“You might be leading the premiership if you stay here much longer,” Chapple said.
It was a typically cheeky, good-natured assertion from the local trainer-driver who has a number of runners entered in tomorrow’s big twilight meeting at the Paceway.
Yesterday, Tamworth was able to program nine races for Sunday’s TAB meeting, five of them heats of the $20,000 Pryde’s EasiFeed Golden Guitar.