Tim O'Connor
Private Eye appears destined for much bigger things after returning from more than 600 days in the wilderness with an emphatic victory at Victorian harness racing headquarters.
David Miles teamed up with the Ahmed Taiba-trained six-year-old to win his first start since March 19, 2022 with an all-the-way display in Saturday night’s Logical Staffing Solutions Pace (NR 80-99).
Private Eye worked to the front shortly after the start and reeled off closing sections of 28.5 and 27.7 to score by just over 3m to the fast-finishing Whiskey Cavalier, who beat home Letsrockletsroll for second place.
“He’s a very, very fast horse this horse,” Miles said.
“He’s got lots of ability and if Ahmed can get his manners straightened out, he’s going to go all the way to Grand Circuit level I think.
“Full credit to the horse and full credit to Ahmed and the boys back at home because he’s given them some headaches, but they’ve done a super job.”
Private Eye is now a winner of seven races from 10 career starts and Taiba is hopeful the son of Hes Watching can reach a higher level down the track.
“He’s had mainly feet issues and he’s a quirky horse,” Taiba told thetrots.com.au.
“I think if he stays sound, he can be a contender in better races.”
Another horse who has spent a significant period of time on the sidelines is Keayang Ignite, and he too was a powerful winner at Melton on Saturday night.
The Paddy Lee-trained squaregaiter had almost four years on the sidelines before he returned to the races in September and backed up the previous week’s Swan Hill Trotters Cup triumph with a dominant victory in the GoodForm On Thetrots.com.au Trot.
The now six-year-old has won seven of nine starts and provided Lee with the first leg of a winning double at HQ. He and young reinswoman Annalise Scott combined to take out the Garrards No Metro Win Pace with Jilliby Jay Sea.
Racing returns to Melton this Saturday night for the Breeders Crown Series semi-finals and four-year-old championship features, with the Breeders Crown Series final the following week.
