Winning Horse: Arigato (Aus)

4yoM Choisir (Aus) - Takanori (Aus)(Vital Equine (Ire))

19 starts - 4 wins 4 thirds 2 fourths $84800

Other Wins

1st Benalla Sam Miranda Wines (Bm58) 1112m (2021)

1st Echuca Bourke Builders Hcp (58) 1600m (2020)

1st Ballarat Craigs Royal Hotel Mdn Plate 1000m (2019)

Other Placings

3rd Ballarat Synthetic Porter Plant Hcp (58) 1400m (2020)

3rd Pakenham Sportsbet-Money Men Podcast-C1 1200m (2020)

3rd Mornington Plover Wellbeing Mdn Plate 1000m (2019)

3rd Mornington Ladbrokes Odds Boost Plate 1200m (2019)

Race Result:

1st: Arigato (C Williams/S Nichols) - $7

2nd: Leggero (J Kah/P Caboche) - $15
3rd: Zoujea (J Allen/S Fliedner) - $12

Winning Time: 1:11.30 Last 600m: 34.57

Margins: 1¾L x Head

Running Tally - Team
Metro	50
Country	44

Leading Jockey - progressive
Row Labels	Sum of Total
Craig Williams	19
Dean Yendall	11
John Allen	10
Jamie Mott	8
Mark Zahra	8
Jamie Kah	7
Jye McNeil	7
Harry Coffey	7
Dean Holland	5
Damien Oliver	4
Damian Lane	3
Madison Lloyd (a)	3
Will Price (a)	2
Jack Hill	0

Winning Trainer: Shane Nichols

“She was great today. It was a pretty painless watch, I thought. She was in a good spot and he hadn’t let her down. She stayed on the bridle for quite a while and it’s just nice to win a race in that fashion.

“I think she can go on with it. I think that’s certainly not her ceiling. I think she can measure up in slightly better races than today. But it was really encouraging to watch her.

“She does like wet tracks and the rain really helped her.

“We’ll just poke around. I wouldn't her appearing in a mares race or something in Adelaide. Try and get a bit of stakes form. She’s got a good pedigree but we’ll probably just use the benchmark system now. I’d imagine she’d be competitive in a 1200 metre benchmark 70.”

On Craig Williams’ salute on the line: “You don’t often see that in a benchmark 64.”

Winning Jockey: Craig Williams

“I’m really grateful for the opportunity to represent the metropolitan jockeys. Mark Zahra is out there giving some banter. We told Jamie that her job is on the line if she can’t get us over the line and I think Denis, our coach, was under pressure as well.

“But we can’t do it without the performances from our horses and the people that train them who were able to get us the points today.”

Denis Pagan on his stable: “Johnny Get Angry probably fooled us a bit after the carnival. All I was thinking about was the autumn and I went and had a look at home after four weeks and he looked terrific. He put 35-kilos on. I put him back into work for six weeks and one morning he was a bit scratchy in his action.

“We trotted him up, he wasn’t lame. I decided, ‘no’ discretion is the better part of valour for Johnny. I want to have a horse for the spring so I tipped him out and he’s enjoying himself up at Bluegum Farm and we’ll have a look at him in three or four weeks time. He’ll have a really good break and hopefully it pays dividends in the long run.

“I’ve probably got one runner at Sale that I’m hoping for but it is in Troy’s name at the moment. I’ve got to get permission to train out of my farm property. I’ve got an Ocean Park horse that probably can get to the races in the next couple of weeks.

“And a Medaglia D’Oro, so we’ll have a bit of fun in the next three or four weeks but my better potentialed horses will run later in the year.”

Winning team presentation - Denis Pagan: “Willo was terrific getting over the line in the finish and Jamie Kah’s important second cannot be underestimated. I thought from our guys it was a great team effort and we couldn’t have won it without the whole lot of them. I take my hat off to you guys. It was a great day and great promotion.

“Since I’ve been involved as a trainer I just can’t believe how courageous our jockeys and track riders are. I see it every morning riding unpredictable beasts and just seeing them and what they do, they’ve got special qualities and I’m privileged to play a small part of it.”