Kate Cowan repaid the faith placed in her by Adrian and Harry Bull when she guided Nashville to another feature race victory at Riccarton.
The 24-year-old is now apprenticed to the Hunterville trainers and she made the most of her opportunity with victory aboard the veteran galloper in Saturday’s Gr.3 eStar Winter Cup and the first black type win of her fledgling career.
The daughter of former leading jumps jockey turned Group One-winning trainer Alex ‘Snooky’ Cowan, she is in only her second season of riding and she was well hugely appreciative of the chance she had been given.
“This is such a special moment and I want to take the opportunity to thank Adrian and Harry,” she said.
“These things don’t happen to apprentices, but they are very loyal and I am so lucky.”
Nashville has been an outstanding servant of the Bull stable as a two-time winner of the Gr.1 Haunui Farm Classic and at Riccarton he has past successes in the Gr.2 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile and the Gr.3 Canterbury Gold Cup.
“He’s a fantastic horse and I’m lucky to be part of this,” Cowan said.
They settled well back in the field before she found clear air with the Darci Brahma gelding who then produced a sustained finish to hit the front 100 metres from home and sail clear to score by two and a half lengths.
Cowan also paid tribute to the part played in the victory by former top jockey David Walsh.
“I walked the track with him yesterday and that was very important,” she said. “I felt like I had an ear piece in and he was coaching me all of the way.”
Doiknowyou was given a cosy run in the trail by Lisa Allpress and they took second money ahead of pacemaker New York Minute and last year’s runner-up Platinum Command in an all North Island finish.
