Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Hard-working trainer Michael Young ended the month of January on a high note at Gloucester Park on Friday night when Jaxs Ideal scored a smart win in the $21,000 Allwood Stud Summer Series 0-1W L/T Pace for fillies and mares to complete a winning treble.
Young’s three winners, Blaze On, Illawong Mustang and Jaxs Ideal, boosted his tally of winners for January to 20 from 48 starters (as well as preparing ten placegetters), and he leads the trainers’ premiership table from Dylan Egerton-Green (who took his tally to ten when $8.40 chance Follow My Stride was successful at Bunbury on Saturday night).
Jaxs Ideal, the $1.40 favourite, gave star reinsman Gary Hall Jnr his fourth win on the ten-event program. She was smartest to begin from barrier three and she bowled along in front to win by a length from $9.50 second favourite Elizabeth Aitch, who sustained a strong run from the rear.
“She’s not at her best yet,” said Young, who races Jaxs Ideal in partnership with Dion Perrella, Dave Boyd, Bob Sherwood, Adam Durrant, Matt Leppard, Aaron Bain’s Racing syndicate and Summit Bloodstock Pty Ltd.
Jaxs Ideal was purchased for $55,000 at the 2023 APG Perth yearling sale, and she has now earned $48,180 from three wins and five placings from 15 starts. Jaxs Ideal is by American Ideal and is the sixth foal out of unraced Christian Cullen mare Jacinta Jones.
Hall was happy with Jaxs Ideal’s performance, saying: “The first quarter (31.2sec.) was to our liking. About the 400m (when Elizabeth Aitch was challenging for the lead) I thought we might have been in trouble. But when I pulled the plugs, she won well.”
Young said that Jaxs Ideal would be set for the $100,000 Sales Classic for three-year-old fillies on February 28 before planning her program leading into the WA Oaks later in the year.