Racing: Fall-guy jockey lands on his feet

Wilkies Paint looks in another league. Picture / Trish Dunell

Michael Manson reckoned there was a better way of making a dollar than falling off hurdlers and steeplechasers on raceday.

And there is.

Manson has discovered it, but it's taken him 14 years to get the lucky break he's been looking for.

It has come in the form of Wilkies Paint, who is attempting to make it four wins from seven starts and three on end in today's $40,000 Cambridge Trophy at Te Rapa.

As a youngster, Manson was apprenticed at Paeroa to Bryce Stanaway, who these days is training in provincial Victoria.

Manson didn't ride a winner in 17 raceday attempts and when he began regularly falling or falling off - not quite the same thing - he figured it was time to look elsewhere.

"I did weed spraying for a while then I was a professional as a farrier, which led to pre-training a few."

Manson pre-trained for Paul Milich and when a couple of the horses won three weeks after handing them over, Manson figured he may as well have a crack himself.

He prepares a team of around a dozen at Ruakaka and has a pretty fair record with the general type of horse he has thus far attracted.

Wilkies Paint looks in another league.

He is one of the very talented gallopers left here by Almutawakel, who stood for only the one season in New Zealand and left this year's Derby winner Wahid.

Like all of Manson's horses, Wilkies Paint does practically all his training on the beach with just the occasional track gallop thrown in.

Manson prepares his team alongside his partner Paula McLean, who was stable foreman for the Donna and Dean Logan establishment.

"The second day I hopped on Wilkies Paint he felt different to any horse I'd ridden," Manson said.

"Then Leith Innes rode him in a trial before he raced and said he felt he'd be very smart."

Wilkies Paint shows another trait of a good horse, he rarely does more than is required to win.

He cleared maidens by three lengths at Ellerslie on February 8, but his winning margins lately have been a head and a nose.

This is one race Manson really wants to win for the horse's owner, Kumeu-based earthmoving contractor Rex Wilkinson, who bought Wilkies Paint at a South Island yearling sale as a youngster that looked like he would probably need time.

"I'll turn him out after this race and bring him back for the spring," said Manson.

Michael Coleman has been the regular rider of Wilkies Paint and retains the mount.

One of the toughest to beat at Te Rapa today should be Ellerslie's Guineas winner Sculptor.

However, part-owner and trainer Peter McKenzie has a concern over the ability of the 3-year-old to manage the sand-slit Te Rapa track.

Sculptor also suffered muscle damage when he slipped over in a float, but apart from those two problems he has the ability to handle this line-up.