Seaside Boulevard and Jackson Painting following a Menangle victory. Photo by Club Menangle
Riverina filly Seaside Boulevard flew the flag for both the Riverina and New South Wales when the Jackson Painting-trained three-year-old scored a last-stride win in the Group 3 Redcliffe Oaks on Saturday night.
Despite drawing wide in gate six, Painting and his filly were afforded luck early, finding an ideal spot on the leader’s back after making a forward move and having runners racing to their inside making costly errors.
From there, Painting sat patiently before he and the leader and eventual runner up, Stripes broke away from the rest of the field, the pair staging a two-horse war over the concluding stages with Seaside Boulevard prevailing by a head.
“She raced so well last week and got the luck she needed from the wide barrier,” said Painting.
“That said she still had to produce her best down the lane to overpower the second horse, and to her credit she stuck her head out right where it counted.”
The filly has only been with Painting for six runs after being purchased by long time clients of his stable, Michael Ross and Anthony Pantano.
The change in scenery has seen the daughter of Downbytheseaside go to another level after a successful start to her career when trained by Michael Hardy in Young.
Gary Cummins who was part of Seaside Boulevard’s original ownership and breeding syndication retained a share in the filly, and the win justified his belief that she had something special about her.
“Both Mick and Anthony have been long term owners with me and before that with Dave Kennedy whom I worked for, so it was great to pick up another feature win for them,” Painting said.
“It was also a real show of faith by Gary to stay in the ownership of the filly.
“He has had a lot of luck with this breed, and hopefully it can continue even further with this filly.”
Painting will be back in action on Friday afternoon at Wagga where he has five drives across the nine-race program including Nasana in race four who is first up in Australia after being purchased from New Zealand.
Excited by a recent trial win at Leeton where she performed well, Painting believes that she could be a mare with a good future, but he is keen to get her to the track today to see what she does under race conditions.
