Hawkes team maintains the winning rage
The win of Mecir in the Schweppes Handicap (1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday capped a fruitful day for the Hawkes Racing team after Laohu saluted at Caulfield just 20 minutes earlier.
The Hawkes Racing team have their horses in rare form with eight wins from 22 runners over the last three weeks, yielding a strike rate of 36.4 percent.
Smart galloper Messene has been a major contributor to the team’s recent winning run but on Saturday at Rosehill it was the handsome Mecir to the fore.
The lightly-raced son of Lonhro has had a chequered career in his 13 starts but this preparation he appears to be hitting his straps with two wins from his last three starts, including a devastating first-up win on the same track back on November 30.
The Hawkes team have taken their time with Mecir as the gelding has endured a few setbacks during his time.
"It’s been a long time coming, this horse has had a few issues,” Michael Hawkes, who trains in partnership with his father John and brother Wayne, said. "He’s still got a lot of upside.
We’ll just keep him sound and it looks like he might get further too which is great but in saying that he’s also got a really good turn of foot.”
Mecir travelled beautifully in fourth spot on the rails before being eased to the outside by Christian Reith and mowing down the favourite Babel, who looked the winner until the 100 metre mark.
Michael Hawkes said he was surprised to see Mecir jump so cleanly and put himself in the race before commending Reith for finding cover and sitting patiently on the horse until 350 metres from the winning post.
"I have to give Christian credit, he did exactly what we told him to do and that’s what got the win,” he said.
Mecir ($6.50) defeated the Tim Martin-trained Skip Town ($11) by half a length with the Peter Snowden-trained Babel ($3.80 fav) a long neck away in third.
Earlier, the Hawkes Racing-trained Laohu took out the Tim Sando Handicap (1200m) at Caulfield to give the training partnership a two-state winning double for the day.