Emerging young trainer Samantha Logan sent out an eye-catching winner at Matamata on Wednesday when the eye-wateringly-named Colin Oscopy broke maiden ranks over 2000m.
The four-year-old son of Zed looks a stayer of real promise after racing to a seven and a half length success, with Logan happy to take her time with the gelding.
“We have always had a high opinion of him, but he has just taken a bit of time, being by Zed, so I think getting up in trip and a wet track, in addition to giving him a bit of time to mature, he is starting to put it all together,” she said.
“I think next year is going to be his year. We will just tick him through the grades quietly this winter and put him out and bring him back next year with a view to some nicer races. At this stage we are not getting too far ahead of ourselves, but we think he is a very progressive type.”
While Grangewilliam Stud stallion Zed has made a name for himself as a sire of star staying mare Verry Elleegant, as well as high-class stayer Waisake, the stallion is also well known as a sire of top-level jumpers, which opens up multiple options for the likes of Colin Oscopy.
“We have jumped him,” Logan said. “We do a little bit of work over the logs with our staying horses just to keep their minds occupied. He is a lovely jumper, so that discipline could be on the cards down the track.”
Colin Oscopy has attracted plenty of social media attention at the majority of his seven starts, but Logan explained there wasn’t a lot of meaning behind the name.
“The owner has got a hard-case sense of humour. He had another one called Anita Pea and a few other strange names,” she said.
“He likes to surprise me, and he just told me he had named the horse and to look it up. It is fair to say I did get a surprise when I looked it up.”
The Cambridge-based horsewoman was also represented by four-year-old stayer Fortune Wings, a well-bred son of Tavistock and Group One performer Octapussy, who finished a close second in another 2000m maiden at Matamata.
“He is improving every race for us. It was his fifth start for us yesterday and we are just getting to know him. He was really brave yesterday and had a tough run and did a lot of work,” Logan said.
“I was proud of him. He is a nice horse once he works it all out. He still does some things wrong and wants to over-race and be a bit fierce, but he is starting to show some of the potential his breeding suggests he might have.”
With a dozen horses in work, Logan, daughter of top trainer Donna Logan, who is these days based in Singapore, is very hands-on and balances pre-training for larger stables with training a handful of her own.
“I have 12 in work at the moment, which is a nice number that keeps us busy. We can still focus on them pretty closely,” she said.
“I generally get older tried horses where people want to change things up a little bit.
“I do a lot of the work myself, which helps the financial situation, and that is part of the reason why I don’t like to get too big.
“Pre-training is a major part of the business. Tony Pike and Te Akau have been really supportive and that is basically how we stay afloat, having half a dozen for them and then having the older horses to train.”
Logan has missed seeing her mother for the best part of two years with COVID-19 making international travel and quarantine a bridge too far, but regularly keeps in contact.
“Mum is the first to ring when we get a winner. She had a really good win in Singapore a few weeks back (S$1million Kranji Mile), so we all keep in touch regularly via facetime and she was the first to ring yesterday.”
Having enjoyed some success training jumpers, Logan only has Lacustre undertaking that role at present, with hurdle trial winner Lambrusco sidelined with a tendon issue.
“I only have Lacustre jumping at the minute. It is just a small team, but they are all going well, which is the main thing,” Logan said.