mmg.com.au

Nothing about jockey Cory Parish’s ride in the Tatura and Shepparton Racing Club’s Italian Plate went as planned, except the end result.

The 23-year-old New Zealand native piloted the John Symons and Sheila Laxon-trained Down Under Boy to victory in the 1600m main race ahead of favourite Crawfish, trained by Mick Price, and the Patrick Payne-trained Oforawesome.

The $15000-to-the-winner prizemoney took Down Under Boy’s career earnings to more than $500000.

Parish’s silks of red, white and green stripes were a fitting match for the day, which drew more than 1000 people to the track, while his rainbow stripes on his breeches represented the club’s support of Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation.

On accepting the trainers’ trophy, Laxon mentioned that Parish’s ride was the opposite from what he had planned.

Parish said the eight-year-old bay gelding, who carried the top weight of 60kg from barrier two, ideally did not like going inside horses, but after 600m he went inside one but was fine.

It was not until heading around the corner into the final straight that Parish found a gap to push through and said from there, carrying the top weight into a head wind, the gelding found another gear.

‘‘It’s a short straight here and I could see I was catching them, but I was just hoping I could get to them fast enough before the winning post,’’ Parish said.

‘‘I’ve never ridden him race day, so I’ve never known him to have much of a sprint as that.

‘‘He always gallops by himself, but with 60 kilos he’s found another gear and has gone really good, so I’m really happy with him.’’

Parish has been in Australia for eight weeks and yesterday was his third winner from nearly 20 rides in the country.

‘‘I’ve been riding track work for (Symons and Laxon), they’ve been fantastic to me and they put me on virtually every horse,’’ he said.

‘‘They’ve given me not just average horses, but good horses like him. They’ve given me a really good opportunity.’’

While the locals’ two-pronged attack in the Italian Plate from Kevin Evans’ Mr O’Postrophe and Gary Sherer’s Sayah failed to make an impact, Tatura trainers found success elsewhere.

Sherer’s Oh George won race two, a 1000m maiden plate, and the Trevor Miles-trained Mon Coeur won the sixth race, a 1600m 0-58 handicap.

Oh George was the $1.40 favourite, but Mon Coeur started at $7.10.

‘‘She was lucky to get a run because she was down in the ratings and she hasn’t had much luck recently with races,’’ Miles said.