APPRENTICE jockey Teo Nugent shared the biggest race win of his short career with champion Western Australian hoop William Pike at Caulfield on Saturday.
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Nugent, a former student at Warrnambool's Brauer College, rode Portland Sky which dead-heated with Celebrity Queen ridden by Pike in the $500,000 group one Oakleigh Plate.
"I'll take a dead heat to win my first group one any day of the week," Nugent told The Standard.
"It's a huge thrill to win a feature black-type race. It's something I've wanted to achieve since I started my career.
"The winning post seemed a long way off when I hit the front on Portland Sky and I could hear The Wizard coming hard over the concluding stages.
"I was not sure if I had held on to win. I've got to thank Portland Sky's trainer Matt Laurie. Matt has been a big supporter of mine."
Nugent is apprenticed to Victoria's leading trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace.
Meanwhile, the Symon Wilde-trained Tralee Rose raced into Adelaide Cup calculations after she scored an effortless victory over Long Arm in the $120,000 group three Lord Reims Stakes at Morphettville.
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The $400,000 group two Adelaide Cup will be run at Morphettville on March 8.
Bookmakers slashed Tralee Rose's price for the Sydney and Melbourne cups following her Lord Reims victory.
She firmed from $26 to $17 for the Sydney Cup and is now a $18 hope in the Melbourne Cup after as much as $34 was bet about her hopes. The Sydney Cup is on April 10.
Tralee Rose has won five of her ten starts and finished in the minor placegetters stall on three occasions. Her connections have pocketed more then $320,000 in stakemoney.
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