The 10-year-old son of Bite The Bullet made sure retirement was not the main talking point as he burst through the middle of the field to win the feature sprint, running away.

He rekindled memories of his glory racing days when the son of Bite The Bullet broke the race record set by Bosworth Ridge in 1991 and went within a hundredth of a second of Lanwryst Star’s 1981 track record (1min 10.40secs) when he stopped the clock at 1min 10.41secs with his length and a half win from heavily backed 

Merconman.

Spectacular Iam was a long neck away third.

Yesterday’s race could have been his last, said owner Paul St Vincent, who had sent him to his son, Kane St Vincent, to train at the Sunshine Coast six weeks ago.

The Jackal, better known as Henry, returned to racing in Brisbane with two disappointing last placings.

At his last outing he bombed the start and was beaten 27 lengths!

“What’ll we do now,” Paul St Vincent asked The Leader as he paraded the horse following his 15th race win.

The big chestnut who has had 67 starts and won more than $1,049,000 in prizemoney added another $14,410 to his tally yesterday.

One of the reasons the St Vincents started him in yesterday’s Lightning, his first Quirindi run, was to reunite him with Cessnock jockey Robert Thompson.

Australia’s most winningest jockey was his regular rider during his successful career when he won two Ramornie Handicaps and a Healy Stakes in Brisbane.

Thompson, they thought, would be able to give them a stark assessment of just where the sprinting star was.

Thompson gave a glowing report.

“He was good as gold today. I knew he was going when he worked his way around to the barriers,”  Thompson said.

“He missed the jump by a neck but he felt great. 

“Halfway down the hill I knew he was right.

“He’s been a great horse for Tamworth, hasn’t he.”

St Vincent fielded numerous congratulatory calls from fellow trainers, stewards, jockeys and racegoers after the race.

His phone was jam-packed with messages of congratulation minutes after the win as he headed to a quick wash and the swabbing box.

So what will he and his son do now?

“Kane has had him up there for the last six weeks and has done a good job. 

“We were going to the Falvelon (in Brisbane today). Lucky we didn’t – it’s a bog up there. 

“Henry (The Jackal) needs rock-hard tracks like this one. 

“We might go to the Lightning at Armidale but Kane might want him to go to Sydney too. 

“Then again we might still retire him too. 

“We just have to wait and see how he pulls up.

“He’ll tell us.”