Racing
Tyreek scores a touchdown on debut at Canterbury
Debutant Tyreek has overcome a messy start to post a classy win at Canterbury.
Horses with above average ability often reveal themselves early and John O'Shea is hoping that proves to be the case with debut winner Tyreek.
Named after American NFL star Tyreek Hill, the three-year-old was conceding race experience and a start to most of his rivals at Canterbury on Wednesday but was still good enough to get the job done in the TAB Handicap (1200m).
"Isn't it amazing. Good horses are usually defined by what they do at their first start, albeit he had a lot of improvement on whatever he did today, he was still good enough to win," O'Shea said.
"He was a very unassuming little fellow as a yearling, but had plenty of athleticism, as we saw today.
"We've got ourselves a nice horse to play with."
Ridden by Dylan Gibbons, Tyreek ($5) settled back in the field after an awkward jump before switching around heels in the straight and chasing down Burma Star ($4) to score by a half-neck.
The runner-up brought solid two-year-old formlines to the race having finished fourth in the Group 3 Canonbury Stakes and filling the same position behind subsequent stakes winner King Of Pop at Warwick Farm in February.
"It's good form. Anything behind King Of Pop you'd think is pretty good," O'Shea said.
Gibbons thought he was "in all sorts" when Tyreek didn't jump cleanly but said the slow start ended up working to their advantage.
"It was a blessing in disguise because he's quite casual and being that pair further back and giving him more to chase was the reason he was able to get the revs up and win," Gibbons said.
"He's like his namesake. He's fast and he's done a good job."
Chris Waller is taking a long-term view with four-year-old Island Dream after her determined victory in the Keenland September Yearling Sale Handicap (1550m).
While the mare will continue to pick her way through the grades this campaign, Waller hopes she can develop into a black-type horse down the track.
"We ran her in a Listed race at the end of last preparation so it's good to see she has come back well," Waller said.
"She could win an Aspiration (Quality) or an Epona (Stakes) in the autumn.
"Today was only second-up so we'll have another sniff at some prizemoney without taking on the big guns in the spring."
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