Kevin Myers should never be underestimated when he takes a team of horses to the West Coast, and neither should his apprentice Lily Sutherland, who included the Recreation Hotel Greymouth Cup (2000m) in her five-win haul on Sunday with Kick On (NZ) (Per Incanto).
The 20-year-old hoop rode out her claim at Otaki on Boxing Day, but that hasn’t slowed her progress in the slightest, riding winners at New Plymouth and Tauherenikau in the subsequent days. Prior to the Omoto meeting, Sutherland was the favourite for the jockey’s challenge and she wasted no time getting on the board, winning the first event of the day aboard Peter Didham’s Havarti (NZ) (Swiss Ace).
She saluted aboard the Michael and Matthew Pitman-trained Russian Rosette (NZ) (Russian Revolution) in the third, alongside victories with Trauma (NZ) (Time Test) and Bernardo (NZ) (Belardo), both prepared by Wanganui-based Myers.
The proven talent of Myers’ contingent, Kick On, was slightly underrated heading into the feature event of the day, starting at $4.50 despite coming out of classy fields in the North Island this campaign. Two of the fancied runners, Mahoe and Reverberations, powered from the gates and were prominent early, while Sutherland found a good position off the fence in fourth with Kick On.
Mahoe maintained his lead and gave the field something to chase on the home turn, but Kick On had plenty of momentum, pouncing to the lead at the 150m and drawing away by an extending 3 – ¾ lengths. The Buffer closed well to finish in second ahead of Star Ballot and Charbano.
A humble Sutherland was full of praise for Kick On, who she had ridden to success twice previously.
“I wanted to be positive and we were, I let one out in front of me but he was in a good rhythm so we just stayed where we were,” she said. “I got going and he’s just been a little bit too good.
“He’s definitely been going well and he’s run big races in stakes company, so he has the class.
“I’m very grateful to the whole team at the Myers stables for the work they do on these horses, I just get the easy job of sitting on them and getting them to run.
“I’ve just had good support all the way through.”
Sutherland’s quintet of winners has her sitting at 43 for the season, just nine shy of her career-best 52, a total which won her last year’s apprentice premiership.
A son of Per Incanto, Kick On is out of star steeplechasing mare Kick Back, who won the Pakuranga Hunt Cup (4900m) and Great Northern Steeplechase (6400m) before retiring with 11 wins, the first of those coincidently coming at the Omoto meeting in 2013.
Bred and owned by the Trotter family, Kick On has won seven races and just shy of $250,000 in stakes in a 44-start career, which also included finishing second to He’s A Doozy in the Gr.3 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile (1600m) in 2022.
