Georgie Holt has high hopes for Tambo's Justice in Townsville Cup

News.com.au

a day ago

Georgie Holt will love to follow the Jeff Dunn - Rikki Jamieson fairytale script and win a big race as a husband-and-wife trainer-jockey combination, but in this game it's never that simple.
Beaudesert trainer Dunn and his wife Jamieson achieved the rare feat on Sha Of Gomer in last month's $200,000 Listed Ramornie Handicap at Grafton.
But with Townsville trainer Holt's husband Aidan unable to ride under 57.5kg, it makes the dream much harder to turn into reality.
Holt's rising star Tambo's Justice will run in the $150,000 Townsville Cup (2000m) on Saturday, although apprentice Tahlia Fenlon will take the ride.
'It gets a bit trickier with us because Aidan's very restricted with weight,' Georgie Holt said about the prospect of winning a feature race as a wife-and-husband combination.
'In those bigger races, unless you've got a horse that's highly rated which gets 57.5kg or more, then it does restrict our opportunities, but I'm not saying it's impossible.
'He's spent more time out of the saddle than he has in. That's taken away most of our feature races which he could've ridden in had his weight been suited back then.
'He's got things under control at the moment and hopefully one day we'll be able to snag one together.'
Until then, the Holts will be banking on the former Tony Gollan -trained Tambo's Justice adding to his six wins from just eight races when he contests the Townsville Cup at Cluden Park.
Gollan sent the son of Justify to north Queensland before he had even raced after the gelding was beaten by more than 20 lengths combined in two trials last year and had developed behavioural issues in the barriers.
While admitting that 'late bloomer' Tambo's Justice was ordinary in trials, Holt said the galloper's issues with manners were quickly resolved in Townsville.
'I'm not saying we're horse whisperers or anything like that, but whatever we did just worked,' she said.
'He's quite a big horse so that can be enough to throw him when he gets in the barriers and feels a bit closed off.
'We went to the races and, touch wood, he hasn't put a foot wrong since.'
That's an understatement as Tambo's Justice has been dominant since triumphing in his race debut over 1300m last November.
He earned a ticket into the Townsville Cup with victory in the Magnetic Island Mile (1609m) on July 6, with his only flop coming last-start when he finished sixth in the Winter Cup, with the blinkers off, in his first race at 2000m.
'He certainly wasn't disgraced in that run but everyone was expecting him to finish a lot closer,' Holt said of the gelding owned by breeder Dalan Tamblyn.
Holt said sometimes she had a difference of opinion with her husband when mapping out a race but generally the couple worked 'quite well as a team, just staying in our lane and doing what we're good at'.
'We don't really disagree on things but sometimes we have different ideas or think on a different wavelength with horses,' she said.
'I don't give him too many instructions, I don't need to.'
The Holts have floated the idea of moving back to Brisbane from Townsville, where they have lived for eight years and Georgie has won two trainers' premierships, but the timing isn't right yet.
She said the gruelling travel schedule in the tropics 'kills us', especially with young kids Kai, 6, and Archie, 3, to consider.
'You put them to bed at night and you might not see them again for two days because you've gone to Cairns and back and you're home late and then they've gone to school,' she said
'Generally only one of us will go away to a race meeting. It does get very hard because the next provincial track is four hours' away at a minimum.
'The kids get dragged around too. They might go to Mackay and back with eight horses for the day. It's just the way it's got to go sometimes.'