Group 1 winning trainer Paul Jenkins might fly largely under the radar these days but give him just a sniff of a good horse and he will produce quality results … like the exceptional five wins in a row by I Am Artie, with the lightly raced son of Artie Shiller’s latest success being posted in familiar comfortable fashion at Doomben on Wednesday.
In that race the five-year-old gelding maintained his unbeaten run since joining the Jenkins stable, all five wins coming this season, kicking off on August 4 over 1200m at Jenkins’ home base of the Sunshine Coast.
Two more wins followed at the Sunshine Coast after that, followed, in turn, by a city Saturday win (under 61kg) and then Wednesdays success.
All of these wins were achieved over the 1200m trip. All of these wins were achieved with something in hand … with the winning margins being 2.5, 2.8, 2.0, 1.3 and 1.12 lengths respectively, underlining the fact that I Am Artie knows how to do enough to win without taken out too much out of himself and that he was perfectly prepared throughout for these carefully measured assignments by Jenkins.
“He is a very good horse. I’m going to step him out a bit further next time,” said Jenkins.
“I’ve been fortunate in that I worked with a number of good horses when I was younger … and I’ve been lucky enough to train a couple of them.
“You know when you have got one and that’s what he is. He is good.
“He is a push-button ride … very easy to train … a natural athlete. He’s got no holes in him at all.
“He’s always done it from a bad barrier, and it’s always been pretty easy for him … you see him pricking his ears the last half-a-dozen strides before he gets to the post. It hasn’t been hard for him to do it.
“I’ll just bring him through the grades though … maybe have a poke at a Listed race. After the race on Wednesday, Jimmy (Orman) suggested that we might try and get a wildcard entry into the Magic Millions. I’ll have to look into that option.”
Queensland’s champion jockey Jimmy Orman would appear to be at one with Jenkins on that point. Blessed with a choice of rides in most races, Orman has stuck fast with I Am Artie, being in the saddle in the last four wins of the Jenkins trained runner.
“Yeah, unfortunately Jimmy is not going to be on him when he runs next,” said Jenkins. “He’s away … he’ll be in Dubai (see separate story) … but he’ll get back on him when he gets home.”
That slight adjustment apart, I Am Artie remains very much a horse to follow moving forward.
He clearly has to ability to go further and Jenkins, who won Group 1 races with King Keitel (the Doomben Cup) and Bazelle (the Auckland Cup and the Zabeel Classic) clearly has the expertise to present I Am Artie at the top of his game.
They really are evolving into a formidable combination.
