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Paul Jordan’s long wait for his first two-year-old winner of the season ended courtesy of one of the more unique horses currently racing in WA.
A renowned trainer of juveniles, Jordan had to wait until the last week of the racing season to end his drought when he produced The Great Hoya to win at Belmont Park on Wednesday.
The son of Patronize’s backstory is one of intrigue as he is one of the few rigs racing.
Rigs are male horses that carry either one or two testicles hidden in their abdomen and they have to undergo surgery to be gelded.
“When we did the inspection of him, we couldn’t find any testicles and when they put him on his back, we couldn’t find them,” Jordan said.
“So we did a blood test and his blood test showed he had less testosterone than a mare and less than a gelding at the time.
“I’ve had rigs before but he had none at all. They’re in there hiding.”
Backed from $17 to $9.50, The Great Hoya fought strongly to beat Platinum Class ($16) by three-quarters of a length in the Peninsula Dining Room Plate (1200m).
Jockey Craig Staples booted the $37,500 yearling buy home in the colours of the late Harvey Crossman, the former WA Racehorse Owners Association president and close friend of Jordan’s.
The Great Hoya improved on his unlucky fourth behind Empress Of India first-up.
“All my owners got an email this morning saying I thought we could win,” Jordan said.
“It’s been a bit of a shocker (this season). I bought a couple of staying types and a couple of these and had a few problems with them, but hopefully we’ve worked through those problems and we should see more of them.
“This horse was choking down so we did some minor surgery on him.”
