EARLIER this year Tidal Creek relegated Kendrick Racing runner Bulloo to second in a mile race at Doomben.
On the weekend Tidal Creek won a Doomben feature race over the same distance, but this time sporting the Kendrick Racing colours.
“He actually beat me here,” trainer Stuart Kendrick said after the horse’s win in a $125,000 Quality (1615m) on Saturday.
“When he came up for sale I thought here’s a good opportunity to get a nice horse,” he said.
“He’s done a good job. His win the other day was good and then to step up into open company and win basically off a class three is a good effort.
“Hopefully, we can knock off a few more over the coming months.”
Kendrick stuck by apprentice Bailey Wheeler for the feature race, despite it being a non-claiming event, and he rode the horse to perfection.
Tidal Creek ($3.60-fav) stalked the leader before hitting the lead in the straight and holding off a late challenge from Military Gambler.
Kendrick had no hesitation in putting Wheeler on, despite not being able to claim.
“He’s a top young jockey coming through. I am sure he has a great future,” he said.
Wheeler said the win was a massive thrill.
He thanked Kendrick for sticking with him and said it was also great to break a bit of a winning drought for the combination after plenty of placings in town in recent times.
“(We’ve) got a lot of seconds recently,” he said.