By Chris Roots
Jason Coyle has been waiting for more than two years for Slightly Sweet to return to the winner's circle and things finally went her way in the Winter Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday.
While Slightly Sweet was able to build momentum and motor to a narrow win, there was jolting and even biting to her inside.
Jess Taylor and Slightly Sweet (second from right) head for the line in a congested finish.Credit: AAP
Shiraz turned to bite Burning Passion inside the final 200m after copping an errant whip across the nose in a busy finish, with the first 11 across the line within two lengths of one another.
For Coyle, it was the win he had long been waiting for, and for jockey Jess Taylor, it was a first Rosehill winner and first stakes winner
Determined: A delighted Jess Taylor enjoys her first Rosehilll winner, on board Slightly Sweet.Credit: AAP
"I have been telling people she has been going good but she just hasn't had any luck," Coyle said. "We missed out on a start in the Tatts Tiara, where I thought she would have been a chance.
"Then she was third the other day [in the Civic Stakes] and had to change direction in the straight when the winner went past her.
"There was only a couple of lengths between a lot of them there and she is usually the one running sixth and you are thinking what might have been.
"Since we put the blinkers on her three runs ago, she has been ready to do something like this but when they don't win for a while they get out in the market."
Taylor had Slightly Sweet three-wide with cover in a race of genuine tempo and got to the centre of the track to make her winning charge.
Coyle said he "wouldn't have wanted anyone else on it in the final 150m because she wanted it the most".
Taylor was rewarded for her ride in the Civic Stakes, where she was a little unlucky.
"She is a very good ride and when they have 53kg it is advantage to have someone like Jess, who can make the weight easily," Coyle said.
Taylor beamed as she came back. "That was just amazing! I'm so grateful to Jason [Coyle] and the connections for keeping me on," she said.
"It hasn't really sunk in. She is my new favourite horse of course.
"When I straightened up I thought I was in with a good chance but I didn't want to get too confident. The last 100m I was just throwing everything at her. I can't believe it."
Taylor had made her run along with Man Of His Word and the pair had the advantage of clear running in the straight. Slightly Sweet had a head margin on the line from the Queensland visitor with Elle Lou poking through only a half head further back in third. Shiraz and Burning Passion finished within another length.
Kim Waugh was told by stewards there would be a warning put on Shiraz, which first had a nip at Josh Parr's boot before biting the neck of Burning Passion.
"He might need a muzzle," Waugh told stewards.
Favourite Gold Symphony never got a clear run in the straight and finished only two lengths from the winner.
It was a winning double for Coyle, who earlier had three-year-old Insensata score a storming win, her fifth for the season.
She took her BOBS bonus total to $55,000 from five wins this season and Coyle will look for another win to try and pass Zumbelina, which has $70,000 in bonuses, to take BOBS horse of the year.
"She is just flying at the moment and that was a good win against the older mares," Coyle said. "Hopefully there is another win in her before the end of the season because it would be a feather in her cap to win BOBS horse of the year."
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