Racing: Titch shows class in Kumara Nuggets

Kevin Myers Ninety-year-old Jim Wallace needed a geography lesson when Kevin Myers told him he was going to start the versatile Titch in the Kumara Gold Nuggets.

"I knew it was somewhere on the top of the South Island but I didn't know where exactly," he said yesterday.

But Wallace has had a long association with Myers - "trainers don't come much better than him" - and he left it up to him.

On Saturday Titch, in the hands of leading rider James McDonald, showed his class again, winning the race in a grinding finish from Waitui Music, several weeks after being narrowly beaten by Showcause in the NZ Cup.

"The thing about Dummy [Myers] is that he gets them fit. Titch has never been fitter, I think," said Wallace, who watched the race on television at home.

Titch, who has now won more than $300,000 from 12 wins and numerous placings, is nominated for the Auckland Cup in March.

Wallace is hoping for some cut in the ground around that time. "I wouldn't like to see him racing in rock hard ground. But if there's a bit of rain around we could be there."

Wallace, who says a crack at the Melbourne Cup in November was unlikely at this stage, almost sold Titch as a yearling, but was talked out of it by his son. Then Myers picked out Titch from a bunch of young horses roaming Wallace's Masterton property, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Wallace had two other horses with Myers - game winter mare Soph - and honest lower graded galloper Sparking, who is shaping as a handy hurdler.

- APN