Mereana’s game plan for Platinum Tyche works a treat - but stipes sour the moment

Jockey Mereana Hudson got all the kudos for Platinum Tyche’s win at Waipukurau on Sunday - before being promptly suspended for careless riding.

In a cruel twist, despite carrying out the game plan to the letter - going to the front, slowing the field down, then outsprinting them home - stewards thought Hudson wasn’t sufficiently clear when she crossed Possess just before the winning post a round from home.

Despite over-racing and being restrained at the time, stewards ruled Possess was checked and they outed Hudson for five riding days.

The incident happened about 50 metres before Platinum Tyche shied at the crossing and slowed up, causing five runners to be hampered in a chain reaction.

Platinum Tyche’s connections, who viewed the penalty as being excessive, were full of praise for Hudson’s ride, which set the winning formula for the day of winners racing on the speed.

In Waipukurau’s first raceday on the course for six years, Hudson kicked Platinum Tyche clear turning for home and easily held her rivals to score by two and three-quarter lengths.

It was a formula which Hudson previously told trainer Lisa Latta she believed would be the best way to ride the Redwood four-year-old who needed to be up and rolling.

But she had no chance to execute it in the mare’s previous start at Wairarapa when, from an inside barrier, she was crowded at the start and held up round the home turn.

Hudson ended up taking a heavy tumble when Platinum Tyche over-reacted when she brushed the running rail when attempting a marginal gap near the 200 metres and fell.

Latta viewed Platinum Tyche’s wide draw on Sunday as a positive, allowing Hudson the room to sool the mare to the lead.

Platinum Tyche was an eye-catcher as a yearling.The win, at her sixth start, confirmed Latta’s belief that Platinum Tyche would be seen at her best over a middle distance.

Co-owner Neville McAlister, who races Platinum Tyche with Lincoln Farms’ John and Lynne Street, is hoping the previously disappointing mare can now go on with the job.

“The ride definitely won the race. She hasn’t shown much so hopefully, now that she’s older, she might come right.”

McAlister knows form from Tauherenikau and Waipukurau is hardly likely to be telling but says her next effort at Wanganui might be more revealing.

Platinum Tyche, who cost $80,000 as a yearling, has the breeding to succeed, being a half sister to Karapiro Classic winner Wallen.

Her dam, the More Than Ready mare Nouveau Amour, was unraced but her third dam Isolda, by Sir Tristram, was a headliner. The joint second top filly of 1994-95 she was a four-time Group I winner at two and ran third in the AJC Oaks.

Nine of Isolda’s 11 foals to race were winners.