Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
High spirits among a Group of friends at the February 2021 APG Perth yearling sale at Middle Swan, celebrating their $80,000 purchase of a well-bred filly, resulted in them making a spur of the moment decision late in the afternoon to buy another filly, even though they had no initial intention in bidding for her.
“So, we ended up with her by mistake,” said jubilant trainer Luke Edwards, who notched his first Group 1 winner when August Moon scored a thrilling victory in the $150,000 The Trots WA Oaks at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“IT’s a funny story. Some of my owners wanted to buy Shockwave’s half-sister and they bought her for $80,000. Then they had a few drinks and the Captaintreacherous filly (August Moon) was the second last filly to be offered, and they just put their hand up and bought her for $38,000.”
August Moon has thrived under the care of the 33-year-old Edwards and her Oaks victory took her record to 18 starts for ten wins, five placings and $296,283 in prizemoney. Edwards also trains the $80,000 filly, Get The Booth, who has raced six times for one placing, a third at Pinjarra, for earnings of $2284.
Described by Edwards as “the people’s horse,” August Moon has a highly enthusiastic group of 15 owners, headed by Graeme Michell, his sons Will and Lachie, Ray Behan and Justin Schwarz, and including a syndicate of ten, headed by Peter Simmonds.
The wild celebrations and the acceptance speech by Edwards were abruptly cut short a few minutes after Gary Hall Jnr had driven a superb race to get August Moon, the $2.60 second fancy, home by a nose ahead of $6.50 chance Turn The Page, with Zephyra ($19) getting through in the inside to finish third, just ahead of the Victorian invader and $2.10 favourite Soho Seraphine.
Greg Bond, the co-trainer of the Team Bond filly Turn The Page, lodged a protest against the winner, alleging that Hall used his whip in the closing stages in contravention of R156 (2a) which states that a driver contrives the rule if the whip is wielded with more than a flicking motion.
After considerable discussion and viewing of the final stages of the race the stewards dismissed the protest, stating that Hall was ‘not out bounds’ with his use of the whip, and that both August Moon and Turn the Page had every chance in the run to the finish.
The stewards stated that they were of the opinion that the manner in which Hall used the whip in the home straight did not advantage August Moon to the extent of warranting a reversal of the placings.
Bond immediately congratulated Edwards on his break though success and said that the win was a wonderful boost for the sport of harness racing.
Later, the stewards fined Hall $300 for using the whip in more than a flicking motion and fined him an additional $200 for shifting ground to the advantage of another runner (Zephyra) on his inside. Zephyra’s driver Dylan Egerton-Green was also fined $300 for using the whip in more than a flicking motion.
August Moon gave Hall his third success in a WA Oaks following wins with Miss Holmes in 2004 and Major Reality in 2015. For Edwards this was his 86TH winner as a trainer. He has also driven 113 winners.
August Moon has inherited much of the ability of her dam My Samantha Jane, who earned $166,426 from 15 wins and 21 placings from 72 starts. She was an $89 outsider from barrier seven when she raced wide and finished tenth behind Liberty Belle Midfrew in the 2014 WA Oaks.
“I never dreamt of Winning a Group 1 race,” said Edwards. “I was a bit emotional in my (acceptance) speech, and after I hugged my Mum, it hit me that all the hard work had paid off. I’ve got a lot of good people around me, and I couldn’t have done without them.
“Gary Hall continues to make good decisions and he has made the horse she is today. Without Gary I don’t think she would have won. He has taken a lot of weight off my shoulders, and how do you tell a bloke who has one so many group ones how to drive in a race? You just hand him the reins and say away you go.
“I’m on cloud nine. It’s euphoric, and I’m emotional and proud and so thankful I have been able to give my owners the experience of winning a big race.”
Zephyra won the start on Friday night, while August Moon went forward from barrier four before getting to the front after 400m. Castella Dellacqua raced in the race in the first lap before Mick Stanley sent Soho Seraphine forward from seventh position after 750m to move to the breeze.
Turn The Page settled down in eighth position in the one-wide line before Deni Roberts sent him forward, three wide, with 900m to travel. She sustained a powerful burst and finished with great determination to take a very narrow lead 90m from home. But August Moon fought back grimly to regain the lead gain the verdict in an extremely close photo finish.
August Moon covered the final 400m sections in 28.3sec. and 29.1sec. and rated 1.57.9 over the 2536m. She is now going for a well-deserved spell before resuming training as a four-year-old next year.