In the two and a half years since Detonator Jack last won, although Ciaron Maher’s faith in the seven-year-old gelding had been tested, it still flickered and he was rewarded with a win in the Listed VRC-CRV Winter Championship (1600m) at Flemington.
Detonator Jack had last saluted in The Gong at Kembla Grange in November 2023 and his last two runs had produced a fourth last and a last so the patience of his connections was being tested.
Maher’s assistant National trainer Jack Turnbull said they went back to the drawing board in a bid to get him to turn his form around.
Turnbull said on the training track Detonator Jack was still showing he wanted to race and that’s why they persevered with him.
“There was a lot of trust involved. We were still a little hesitant whether he wanted to be out there or not,” Turnbull said.
He said they played around with training him differently by schooling him and using the treadmill in a bid to rejuvenate him.
They also placed blinkers on him again and turned back to the jockey who had last won on him in John Allen who hadn’t ridden him in his previous 27 starts.
Allen had an excellent record of seven rides for three wins and four places but suggested he was taken off by his owners after they weren’t happy with one of his rides.
Allen has struck form recently and that was his seventh winner for the week.
Allen said Detonator Jack won in similar fashion to when he last won on him surging home late to claim victory.
Allen said he checked out Detonator Jack’s recent runs and he was sceptical he would run well but Maher told him he had rejigged his training, and he suggested he would improve.
Former top jumps jockey and now trainer Shane Jackson ticked off another bucket list item when he scored his first Flemington winner with his stayer and top hurdler Highland Blaze winning the Banjo Patterson Series Final.
Jackson now has stables at Flemington as well as his base at Warrnambool and said it was a huge thrill.
“We now have a stable here now, so it’s our second home.”
Patrick Payne’s Clevor Trever underlined he has a big future when he made it five wins on end with an easy victory in the Silver Bowl Series Final.
MORE NEWS: Craig Newitt Questions Racing Victoria After Son Barred From Jockeys’ Room
