Joe Douglas leads Ming’s Emperor from the winner’s stall as Sally House and jockey Maija Vance look on proudly after the first success for the training partners at Te Rapa today.
Ming’s Emperor wasn’t popular with punters, but his upset maiden win at Te Rapa today will always be cherished by former Great Northern hero Joe Douglas.
Ming’s Emperor rocked punters to the tune of 78/1 when guided to victory by Maija Vance in the Style Counsel 1600 and for Douglas it was his first training success since going into partnership with long-time Cambridge trainer Sally House a couple of years ago.
“It’s been a lot of hard work and now we’ve got a result,” said Douglas as he watched Vance return to scale on the O’Reilly five-year-old. ”I’ll enjoy this and savour it for the rest of my life.”
Ming’s Emperor had shown some early promise on the racetrack with third placings in his first two starts (both at Matamata last May) after winning a couple of trials. He then ran a couple of sixths in his first two assignments back from a spell, but was completely dropped by punters after finishing 11th of 13 at Tauranga on January 2.
But Douglas wasn’t surprised to see him shape up today in his sixth start, though a win was a bonus result.
“He had blinkers and a tongue tie on today and he needed a bit better track like this,” he said. “Maija galloped him through the week and she was pretty pleased.”
Vance was reunited raceday with Ming’s Emperor after her first ride on him fresh-up a couple of months ago.
Maija Vance getting the best out of the roughie Ming’s Emperor at Te Rapa today.
She settled him midfield and had him sixth on the inner approaching the home turn. Whereas other riders skirted out for runs, she stuck to the fence and pushed her mount through to challenge at the 200 metres.
Ming’s Emperor had skipped a couple of lengths clear at the 150 metres and though he ran out in the final stages he held on to win by a neck from Madam Woo.
For Douglas, the win rates right up there with his highlights as a jumps jockey.
Douglas, who is also often one of the hard-working staff behind the barriers at most northern race days, enjoyed a few special moments during his rather brief seven-year career as a jumps jockey which netted 16 wins.
He formed a very successful association with the Tony Cole-trained Royal Ways with back-to-back Great Northern Steeplechase wins (1999 and 2000) and victory in the 2000 Pakuranga Hunt Cup.
He also joined an elite list of jumps jockey to win the Great Northern double in the same year as a couple of days before his 1999 Great Northern Steeples win on Royal Ways he was successful on Adipose David for Pukekohe owner-trainer John Twomey in the Great Northern Hurdles.
Douglas ended his riding career in 2001 and joined forces with House in a training partnership in the 2015-16 season.
With limited raceday runners, Douglas and House had to settle for six placings from their 43 starts leading into today’s meeting. But number 44 provided the winning turn, proving a popular result at the Cambridge training centre.
Ming’s Emperor has the bloodlines to go on from his breakthrough maiden win, Bred by Haunui Bloodstock, he is a grandson of Dopff, the Gr.2 ARC Bluebird Foods Trophy winner).
This is the family of two other recent winners from Cambridge, namely the Roger James-trained Rondinella and Insight, from Stephen Marsh’s stable.
