TAREE trainer Wayne Wilkes went in with a precise plan and his apprentice daughter jockey Shae Wilkes carried it out to perfection for Otium to win at his home track on Monday.
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Otium was running in the second race, the Ian Deer Country Boosted Maiden Plate over 1250 metres, and Wayne made a point of watching the first race closely to see how the Heavy 9 track played.
He combined that with his recollection of where the best going seemed to be at the previous Taree meeting seven days earlier, on a Heavy 10 track, and settled on what he thought was the best way to attack the race.
"The instructions were 'don't hold him up for a sit and sprint on a wet track'," Wilkes said after the four-year-old gelding had shed his maiden status with an easy win by 2.93 lengths as a $4.20 chance.
"I wanted Shae to let him roll into the race, which she did, and they combined to put them away without any trouble after that.
"The centre of the track was where the going was best. After we watched the first race and knowing how the track played last week, we knew that was where we had to be in the straight. Stay away from the fence. It turned out to be good tactics."
Oakfield Hawk, ridden by the vastly experienced Grant Buckley, stormed down the outside to win the first race.
Shae settled Otium in fifth position and with 550 metres to go she began moving forward on the horse, allowing him to drift out towards the centre of the track rounding the home turn. From there it was a one-act affair.
Wayne has made a habit of training winners at Taree meetings recently. This was the fifth home-track meeting in the last two months where he has recorded a victory. Shae rode all five of those winners.
