The leading trainer and jockey for 2025/26 each finished on a high as Victoria’s picnic season came to a close at Yea last Saturday.
Shaun Cooper set the seal on his seventh consecutive jockeys’ premiership, signing off with a 4oth winner for the season when he steered the four-year-old Royal Meeting mare Cavascot to her maiden win at start 17.
A recent addition to John Heath’s Seymour stable, Cavascot was runner up at Hillston (NSW) in a non-TAB race seven days prior. She handled the back-up and 11kg weight rise in her stride, scoring by a length and a half.
Cooper’s 40 winners came at a strike rate of 33.6 per cent from 119 rides, a big uptick on 2024/25, when he rode 34 winners at 20 per cent from 167 rides.
Ben Moffat (who also rode a winner at Yea) got closest to Cooper with 22 wins, while Leigh Taylor (who took riding honours last Saturday with a double) finished on 20.
Champion trainer Troy Kilgower also had a bigger return in 2025/26 than the previous year. Winning his fifth title, Kilgower notched 30 winners at 16 per cent compared to 19 at 11 per cent in 2024-25.
Don Dwyer finished runner-up in the premiership on 18 wins with Reece Goodwin third on nine.
Kilgower nabbed his 30th winner last Saturday when recent stable acquisition Elite Pete won his second race in three starts for the stable, having broken his maiden at Swifts Creek a fortnight earlier.
Mag-nificent
Reece Goodwin couldn’t go out a winner at Yea, with the previous Saturday’s Balnarring winner Adavale failing to back up successfully, but he will take home the Horse of the Year title thanks to his bargain buy Magnardo.
The Toronado mare, a $3000 Inglis Digital purchase by Goodwin, won six times on the picnic circuit this season (as well scoring at Werribee and Mornington TAB meetings) and has earned more than $40,000 since changing hands last August.
Kilgower’s six-year-old gelding Nic Says No started the season with a bang, winning at Alexandra, Healesville and Yea in the spring, and finished with five wins.
Desert Boots, Qubella, Diamanda and Flower Gallery won four races apiece.
Pat’s Cup to Pat
The highlight to finish the season at Yea was the Sister Olive Yea St Pat’s Cup over 3000 metres, taken out by the husband-and-wife team of jockey Rob and trainer Shelley Kirkpatrick with their aptly named gelding Patrick.
A $5500 Inglis Digital purchase in September 2024, Patrick (by So You Think) won his first race for the stable at Alexandra in March over 1830 metres. Last Saturday he outstayed his rivals over the marathon journey at Yea to win by 3¾ lengths.
Kilgower’s Houdini Catarno finished second while Cooper’s mount, $1.90 favourite Parabellum, finished at the rear of the five-horse field.
Onya, Charlie
Young jockey Charlie Brooks will always remember the final meeting of the 2025/26 season as it marked the moment he rode his first winner, four weeks after his first ride.
Brooks, 17-year-old son of Warrnambool trainer John, is the latest addition to the picnic riding ranks and after notching two minor placings he got off the mark by guiding the Mark Ashby-trained Stormyfriendship to a maiden win.
It’s been a good little induction for Brooks, who will be looking to further his career by continuing to ride trackwork and jumpouts in preparation for the 2026/27 picnic season.