Trainer Mark Milton saddles up Miss Couver at Scone

The Australian

a day ago

Trainer, owner and breeder Mark Milton is hoping his 'internet speck' Miss Couver can win back her meagre purchase price and start building a bank to pay for a stallion partner some time this spring or the next when she steps out at Scone today.
The daughter of Golden Slipper winner Vancouver was originally housed at Leilani Lodge with Anthony Cummings who trained Miss Couver's Group 1-winning 'uncles' Outback Prince and Hotel Grand.
Her most recent three starts were under the Ciaron Maher banner, prior to being put out to tender.
Enter Milton, the former Mudgee trainer now firmly ensconced at the nation's thoroughbred capital.
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'It was a bit of an afterthought to buy her when I was playing on the Inglis Digital,'' Milton said.
'I thought why not have a bid on this one?
'I only paid $3,500 for her which is not a lot when you consider what we are racing for.
'And she'd won at the provincials and had run a couple of placings at the metros and that.'
Miss Couver's 13th and last run came on July 9 where she finished down the order in a Benchmark 72 at Canterbury.
Her first assignment for Milton comes on Monday in the One Agency Scone Class 1 Handicap (1200m) with Kody Nestor to steer.
'I haven't done a real lot with her,'' Milton says. 'She hasn't had any hard gallops but she is certainly coming back in class a bit.
'She is a nice big, strong mare who came to me in good nick.'
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Given how well-bred Miss Couver is, Milton is seriously considering breeding from the genetically blessed mare.
'Everyone keeps telling me, even down at Ciaron's that she would make a lovely broodmare,'' Milton said.
'She is a really big scopey horse. If you send her to the right stallion, she should throw a cracking sort of a foal.
'It's up to her to win her service fee.'
Milton, meanwhile, has found another ideal race for Flying Molly who has the opportunity to collect $15,000 if successful in the Arrowfield Country Boosted Maiden Plate (1100m).
Born and bred at Kingstar Farm, just like 2021 Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside, Flying Molly turned six on August 1 yet has just five runs under her belt.
In fact the time between her third and fourth starts was a staggering 86weeks, or 602days.
'I moved from Mudgee over to Scone and then there was a rigmarole to be able to train at Scone for a while so she just sat in the paddock and in no time at all, nearly two years had gone past,'' Milton explained.
'There was no injury problem or anything like that, it was just a change of location and the moving process and everything else.'
The break has, it seems, worked wonders for Flying Molly who has posted back-to-back PBs at her two runs since her return to racing.
Both were at Scone, one a closing third to the handy Kris Lees-trained galloper Herman Said.
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The other was a three-quarter-length second to the Rodney Northam-housed Nova Centauri who goes around in the last on Monday's Scone card.
'I am guessing this race is probably a bit harder looking at the prices on the TAB but she has been pretty consistent and a little bit green in her runs too but even though she is a little bit older, she doesn't have a lot of experience,'' Milton said.
Flying Molly, a $10,000 Inglis weanling purchase in 2020, can lay a rare claim to boast a Golden Slipper winner hanging on her family tree.
Her fifth dam, Light Of Peace, was the mother of 1987 Slipper hero, Star Watch.