#1 - Jack Pilkington

Im joined by up and coming trainer Jack Pilkington before his first G1 runner Am I Dreaming goes around in the Inglis Sires on Saturday 

IG / jacobtyson__

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I am joined today by a uh young up-and-coming trainer based out at Hawkesbury. A man who's got his first Group One runner this weekend in the Sayers in just you know after just getting his training license only a little bit over two years ago. Joined by Jack Pilkington. Today, mate, how are you? Good, good. Yeah. How how was the uh the work this morning? What what'd you get done?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Um yeah, planning to get around the track. Um, not really a gallop morning, so nothing too crazy. Um just had a few that have just come back into the stable, so they're just working away quietly. Um one breaker that I was doing for Blue Bloods just finished up his breaking in preparation, and uh so then I get in a videographer to do a bit of a sales pitch for them and uh just a few others uh countering around the track that might gallop tomorrow, or uh one of them's racing tomorrow, obviously. So um, yeah, just pretty standard morning. How many have you got in work at the moment? Uh try and keep about 12 in at the moment and uh looking to keep around 15 um in a in a couple of months' time, um, get up to that number and then stick around that for a while. So um yeah, just steady growth, just gotta build a team of staff along along with the with the horse growth. But um yeah, as the demand goes up, um, you know, and the stable has success, uh more horses come in. Um so I try and keep it around that amount, but they're not always all my horses. I do quite a lot of breaking in and pre-training for some other people as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah, and you do a lot of that work yourself as well, like in terms of riding the horses and all that, you're very, very hands-on trainer. Um, I I was reading up this morning about uh some of your experiences traveling, you know, all around the world working for some of the best trainers in the business, you know, you're Kieran Maas, Chris Wallace, David Hayes, all these sorts of guys, and a guy that uh you mentioned in a quote was South African trainer Justin Snaith, and how his sort of hands-on philosophy really sh really shaped your experience. How has that sort of um gone for you in your first couple of years training horses yourself?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, naturally, it stands me in good stead. And your most expensive staff are your riders. Um, so riding myself, um, you know, saves saves me there, but also uh I can have a feel for the horses myself. Uh I love breaking them in, um, love really getting to know their personalities, know what makes them tick. Um, they're so transparent when they're babies, they uh they really you know teach you a lot about their personalities and and what's going to suit them. Um and so I like doing all the breaking in myself. And obviously, then I'll be uh fairly critical of the riders that I would take on. So I want to make sure I take on very good riders um and uh and and all the staff. I want to be you know, very talented staff. Um I suppose because I I probably hold people to a fairly high standard, but I hold myself to a very high standard. I've I've only really worked for a lot of the best trainers around the world and they learn how to do things right. And uh um, but yeah, uh obviously the riding part, you know, being able to w when I only had one horse, I mean I did everything with Alabama State, obviously, from the start. I didn't have any staff until about a year ago. Um then obviously now I've started to build a bit of a team. Um I I've needed them more, but um but uh no, it's been it's been going good and and I and I don't really want to lose that either. I always want to be hands-on for as long as I can um because I really enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yeah, and it's certainly working out all right. You did mention Alabama stay there. I wanted to ask you about that horse. What sort of a journey did did that gilding sort of taking you on and is still sort of taking you on? Brought it for 80,000 at the millions, won over, you know, close to 300,000 in prize money now, you know, competitive in a couple of midways in town and all that. What what sort of a journey is that horse taking you on as your first um as your first horse in the stable?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, he's been awesome. He's obviously been a flag bearer. Um, you know, I I spent more time with him in the early days than any horse or human ever in my life, pretty much, because you you've got one animal, that is your whole stable, but you can put loads of time into it. He's really he's like family, but he's not even like you know, like a son. He's more like a brother. I kind of you know look him straight in the eye. He's like another, he's like an extra brother of mine. Um, and I just I've spent so much time with him, and we know each other so well. Um, and he's he always he showed plenty of talent early, very big horse, so he was going to take a little bit of time to mature, but great constitution. The fact that I got five runs out of him in his first racing prep as a two-year-old and a win beating older horses um was was pretty, you know, it was a fantastic result, and the owners were really enjoying the journey. And then he came out as a three-year-old and won straight away again. Um, and then he's only been running on Saturdays since, and that's where he can really raise the flag for my stable. You know, all of the races he runs in are Saturday Metropolitan Stables. It kind of keeps keeps me in the headlines a bit, um, especially when he's winning them. But he was fourth in a group three. He ran in uh uh three group threes in a listed race. He ran in a$500,000 handicap. Um, and he's just he's been very consistent, uh, very reliable. Three wins, like you say, nearly 300 grand in prize money. Like that's a huge success story. You know, most horses, you can't be any horse that wipes their face in terms of what you pay for it and what they win back, owners that have been in the game for a long time, they'll say that's a good horse. Um, and he's he's well ahead. So uh he's obviously yeah, he's been brilliant. He's having a long spell at the moment, but I can't wait for him to come back. Um, I've seen him twice in the last couple of weeks, just gone up to the farm and visited him. But yeah, I can't wait for him to come back.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah, well that's what I was gonna say. Is there a sort of timeline on when when he's gonna be back? What's the next sort of targets for him?

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Um no particular targets because now he's a gelding, he doesn't necessarily have to aim for you know a certain race to try and improve his profile. Um, we just go in the the handicaps around the right mark, um, you know, so he's not got um, you know, he's around the right sort of weights and things, um, and the right kind of trips and and just um really let him enjoy his racing. Um look after him plenty, you know. We can have plenty of longevity. He could be racing for years. So by the time he actually comes back racing, it'll might even be um the start of August, in which case he'll be five years old. But you know, we've we've looked after him, we gave him a long holiday now, and and that's with longevity in mind. Um if he comes back in great form and goes and wins a couple more handicaps, he you you could probably see him being around the kind of benchmark that sees him scrape into some big money handicaps at a low weight, um, and that would be great fun too.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Yeah, just another horse that you got coming through. Your first ever group one runner, MI Dreaming Two-year-old Colt had its first start a couple of weeks ago. He had a pretty handy day there at uh Hawk 3 with M. Dreaming and Alpha Zeta. We'll talk about her in a second as well. But um look look looked alright in his first start over 1300. What chances do you do you give him in that race?

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah, obviously he's thrown in the deep end, but yeah, um this was a bit of a plan. It might seem very ambitious, um, but I wanted to get that run into him in time for the Sires. He wasn't probably gonna be the kind of horse that was gonna be suited to a golden slipper. Um, you know, he's not your your sort of uh slightly smaller, ready-to-run two-year-old type. He's a he's a big rangy animal, um, covers a lot of ground with his stride, and and the sort of sires and the champagne kind of path was probably gonna suit him more, but always showed lots of talent. Uh, he's always really worked with older horses anyway in his gallops, um, because he needs to have something that you know is is good enough to go with him, really. Um, and he's always showed the right signs that he's gonna be up to a fairly decent level. So, yes, we're throwing him in the deep end. Um if he's running strong through the line, it would be a really good prep run for the Champagne. Um, and I know Jason Collett, having ridden him, obviously he's had to stick with Paradoxium, who he rode in the slipper, uh, going into the Sires. But I know after he got off him when he won on him, he's he said the the sort of champagne stakes and the JJ Atkins, those kinds of races would be right up his street. So if this ends up looking like a bit of a great prep for him going into them, that's fine. Um, but I I I still think he'll run above his odds. Um, the map isn't that easy. Uh, a lot of the speeds drawn out wide, and then the horses you have in towards the fence are usually not go forward horses, but then you've got Zach Lloyd, James McDonald, um, Zach Perton on those horses. So they're not gonna let everybody have it easy. So um we're probably gonna have to use a little bit of petrol early, but you'll have seen in his debut run, he was obviously very professional, but he went to sleep in the middle stages, and that's gonna be important as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yeah, we looked like he showed a little bit of uh a good bit of gate speed as well early in that race, and then he was just able to take a position where he wanted, look super professional, and then yeah, uh do you think you'll appreciate that that 1400? And obviously, you know, you spoke about the champagne and JJ Atkins' targets. Do you think he'll get out and stretch out over further?

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah, I do. I do. I I think I mean he might be, you know, he might even be a mile and a quarter horse next year, and and the benefit of having a horse like him that you believe can stay a little further, which some of the trapeze artists have shown that they can, um, the competition thins out. Obviously, the Australian breeding's it, you know, seen as centred around precocity and speed. So the further you can stay, genuinely, um, the higher the level you can sometimes rise to. Um so if we can get him out over a trip, um, which I think will be suitable to him genuinely, then uh then he can probably keep himself at a fairly fairly decent level, and we've got another proper Saturday horse.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Yep, 100%. Um the other horse that you got running on the weekend on Monday at Rose Hill, Alpha Zita, I thought she was pretty impressive in her first race start, was was wide without cover for a lot of it, and and finished off quite nicely down the outside. Probably entitled to finish a little bit closer, even with the tough run in transit, was only beaten half a length. Um, this time gets gate one. What does that sort of do for your chances in that race?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yeah, uh look, it's it's a huge help. Um her debut was brilliant. Um I asked Jason if she got tired, and he said she actually was more lost because she sort of she was in a battle with the favorite out wide and she beat it off. She he said she wouldn't have seen the two that came up the fence, they were too far across the track. She wouldn't have known she was beat. She was just thought she was in in front, and and you know that that was a case of doing enough there. She beaten half a length. He said if she was drawn in and she was in a battle with them, she probably beats them. So you know, she may well have also lost her maiden tag as well. Um, she's galloped with um Am I Dreaming a Bit. Um, she's uh very talented Philly. She's actually out of a half-sister to Yorsong, who's obviously a Stalin, who also won a group one. So she's quite well bred as well. Um and and she's shown us plenty of talent at home. This is a hot field on Monday, it's not a big field, but you'll see the likes of Gaze Horse, it's by a slipper winner out of a slipper winner. Uh, most of them have been placed in Super Maidens in town, so the form is going to be pretty strong. I'd say there'll be plenty of winners come out of Monday's race in the near future, and they're probably all worth following. Um, if we don't win and we run really well, definitely get on our next start because it is a step up from what her last race was. Um, but that said, you can't knock her for her debut at all. Um, I think she's over the odds. I think she's about$21. Um and she's definitely over the odds. It's a shame you you're not getting third place for your each way bet, but yeah, don't don't let her go round without having a fiver on her.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Yeah, yeah, 100%. Now you got two um two, you know, in the in the betting market, they're both pretty long odds, but you know, they're not without a chance in both of those races, and um, yeah, hopefully it'd be a good weekend for for you and the team if if you know both of them can can can run alright in those races.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Yeah, it could be a huge weekend, and the horses don't know what price they are. So sometimes people see a horse's price tumble and they're like, oh, this thing's chances are improving all the time. The horses ain't got a clue, it's chances chances haven't changed. You just just got to be the person who gets on early when it's still a big price. That's part of the benefit, probably, of you know, somebody having a few quid on my horses. Nobody really knows who I am yet. So they let them open up at long lods, and then when people start looking at the form, sometimes they tumble. But um, yeah, yeah. No, I've I I think Am I Dreaming will probably outrun his odds, and I certainly think uh Alpha Zeto will run outrun her odds on Monday. But she they're they're both worth following. They're they're both talented, they'll both be winning plenty of races and they've both got bright futures. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

All right, thanks for your time this morning, mate. Enjoy your Easter long weekend and uh best of luck in those two races.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

No worries, thanks for having me on.