Racing: Easter victory drains Tiley

Albany Reunion (right) had a favourable draw and kept to the best ground in the centre of the track.

Trainer left flat after Albany Reunion's Ellerslie win but promises to celebrate this week.

Nigel Tiley didn't celebrate Albany Reunion's $200,000 Manco Easter win on Saturday night. He says there was no adrenalin left.

Group one racing can do that to you. When Makybe Diva's owner Tony Santic won the Cox Plate with the mare he was doing backward flips.

Ten days later when the champion mare did the impossible and won her third Melbourne under a crushing weight Santic was so adrenalin-drained in his finest moment he stood motionless in the Flemington birdcage like a rabbit in the headlights.

"After a big win like that you can feel really flat," said Tiley yesterday. "Plus, it was my weekend on to work and I've just mucked out 10 boxes and that's not easy with a hangover."

The scenario was a whole lot different from the days when Tiley was a prominent Hong Kong jockey.

Albany Reunion is the highlight of Nigel Tiley's return to training, but it's easy to forget that he won the Derby at Ellerslie in the first year of his original training stint in 1994 with Look Who's Talking.

In horse racing you never know when you're winning and when you're losing. Tiley is one of racing's coolest characters, but he wouldn't have been human if he didn't let out at least a small gasp when Albany Reunion drew barrier No 20 last Wednesday.

It turned out to be the winning of the race. If Albany Reunion had come out of gate No 1 he couldn't possibly have won.

The inside two lanes at Ellerslie on Saturday were death traps. The best footing was out wide closer to the centre of the track and that's where Albany Reunion and Mark du Plessis were the entire race. The remarkable feature was that the pair sat three deep without cover throughout.

Du Plessis was ready for it. "No matter how I looked at the race I couldn't see anything but us being left three wide without cover."

Tiley and co-owner Eric Watson created some around-the-world on-line banter last week.

"Thanks for ruining the punt," Watson emailed Tiley Friday night.

"I sent back a question mark," said Tiley. "The answer came back 'New Zealand Herald preview'. I said I was just taking some of the Warriors pressure off you."

In Albany Reunion, Tiley has a serious racehorse to take his second training stint even further. His timing in developing the horse is flawless.

"He's been a bit of a clown - he has taken life too casually. Even when he won at Ellerslie at his previous start when he won easily, he still didn't do what I knew he could do. But that Avondale barrier trial win really put his mind in the right place and he'll improve further."

The Easter became Fastnet Rock's 15th group one victory.

Albany Reunion will now be spelled and aimed at the first two legs of the Hastings treble.

Oh, a casual Saturday night does not mean a group one victory will go without recognition.

"I've got great staff and they work hard. We're going to get together later in the week. Don't worry, we'll have a headache some time this week."

$200,000 Manco Easter

* Albany Reunion's wide barrier proved to be an advantage.

* He sat three wide and still held out a gallant Chintz.

* Owner Eric Watson joined fellow Warriors owner Sir Owen Glenn in success, Glenn having won the Australian Derby on Saturday with Criterion.