TAB Kingsford-Smith Cup (Group 1)

WITH the precision of a fighter pilot, Jamie Kah showcased her talents at Eagle Farm on Saturday to land an unlikely Group 1 win for trainer Tony Gollan aboard Vega One in the Kingsford-Smith Cup over 1,300 metres.

Second last approaching the bend in the 15-horse field, Kah had the Lope De Vega gelding wide and camped behind a wall of horses. With the runway rapidly diminishing, she switched inside the horse she was on the back of and somehow threaded through what’s best described as the narrowest ‘dog leg’ of a gap which would make lesser jockeys gulp.

“That is unbelievable – awesome, I wanted to get held up a bit on that horse but not that much, I needed a run desperately in the end,” said Kah.

“I was in a lot of trouble on him. I have obviously been trying to stay in Melbourne as much as possible but when opportunities like this come you have to take them and I have been very, very lucky with the horses I’ve got on.”

The Group 1 was Kah’s sixth, surpassing Michelle Payne’s five, making her Australia’s most successful female jockey.

Trainer Tony Gollan also picked up the quinella, with Jonker whose sire Spirit Of Boom won the Doomben 10,000 in 2014, the last time Gollan had trained a Group 1 winner in his home State. Third in, a nose away was the Exceed And Excel horse Signore Fox.

“This horse had a major injury last year after the Stradbroke and had a long time off and it has been a long-range mission to get to this race and then into the Stradbroke with him,” said Gollan.

“I didn’t know where to look, I thought Jonker was going to hang on but then I saw Vega One behind a wall of horses and all of a sudden off he went. To run one-two in a Group 1 at home is fantastic.

“Jamie Kah doesn’t ride very often up here but I hope she comes up here a bit more often. She has done a great job, there were no instructions and I said just ‘do what you want to do’.”