Our money’s on Ashleigh to get Fabian Hawk to do his best at Woodville on Sunday

Trainer Peter Didham is hoping his stable manager and trackwork rider Ashleigh McIntyre can do what no fully fledged jockey has managed this season - get the best out of Fabian Hawk.

Fabian Hawk ($5, $2) was one of the finds of winter racing in 2023 and by rights should have been competing against the best this preparation. But, instead, after a string of inexplicable failures, he finds himself on notice in an amateur riders’ race at Woodville on Sunday.

Against a field of very moderately performed rating 65 horses and a few jumpers, Fabian Hawk is an automatic top selection despite carrying top weight of 70kg.

But Didham tempers his confidence with the suspicion that Fabian Hawk hasn’t been trying this campaign.

“He’s been a real head scratcher,” Didham said. “We’ve vet checked him twice but he’s fine and he couldn’t have been working any better.

“He just hasn’t come up like last year and I don’t know whether it’s his attitude. This year for some reason he’s just not happy.

“And we looked after him last year. He had one bad run and we turned him out straight away.”

Fabian Hawk looked a rising winter star with three quick wins in 2023. PHOTO: Peter Rubery/Race Images.Didham and his fellow owners Lincoln Farms’ John and Lynne Street, Ian Middleton, Tim Gillespie and Bill Gleeson thought they were onto a real winter winner when Fabian Hawk bagged three races in quick succession, including a seven length romp on a heavy 10 track at Awapuni for Johnathan Parkes.

“Parkesy really liked him and I thought over 2200 and 2400 this year he’d be flying.

“I thought his run at Waverley (for third) was encouraging but I was disappointed with his last run on the poly.

“He had a very easy run in an average field on a track he’s done a lot of work on and Masa (Hashizume) said he cruised up at the 600 to go to the lead.

“But he just gave up, chucked it in.”

On Sunday, Didham says the six-year-old will have no excuses with the track today rated his favourite heavy 10.

“He’s a tall, athletic horse so carrying 70kg isn’t helpful but they’re all carrying big weights so it’s an even playing field.

“He should roll along in the first three or four and it’s a good drop back to a rating 65. But if you’re not putting in, it doesn’t matter what grade you’re in.”

Didham is confident McIntyre, 26, can do a good job on the horse.

“She’s a good rider - she’s ridden trackwork for a number of overseas stables - and rides him in a lot of his work.

“He’s a nice horse to ride and she gets on well with him.”

The best of McIntyre’s 10 rides in the amateur ranks so far has been a close second on Expresso To Go in the Duke Of Gloucester Cup at Hastings in June.