Unraced at two and placed just once from five starts late in the season at three, Scan Air rewarded the patience of trainer Gary Jones and his mother Margaret Jones when the six year old gelding got up in the last stride to down Im Themightyquinn in last night’s $25,000 Village Kid Sprint.
The Northam track record was shattered in the process as Scan Air rated 1:54.8 over the 1780 metres easily eclipsing the 1:55.7 rated by Sneakyn Down Under in winning the 2008 Village Kid Sprint.
Bred by Gary Jones’s father Bob Jones, Scan Air is a son of former champion WA pacer Saab from one of Bob Jones’s favourite maternal families, that which traces back to a New Zealand mare called Rosewood.
Scan Air joins, Legendary Jac, Lookslikelightning, Nats Nifty, Earth Station and Take A Million as a WA Bred 1:55 performer on Australian soil.
Saab joins Lucky Cam, Armbro Intercept, Trev Leo, Vegas Star, and Million To One as a WA based sire of a 1:55 performer on Australian soil.
Bob Jones died in August 2007 after a long involvement with harness racing as a breeder, owner and administrator and Scan Air races in the name of Margaret Jones and the Estate of her late husband.
Bob was tipped from the sulky and injured whilst working the then 2yo Scan Air at his Oakford property.
Later Scan Air developed what appeared to be colic and was taken to Murdoch Veterinary Hospital where vets advised an operation to correct what they diagnosed as a blockage.
“Gary had told Bob very early in the piece that he felt Scan Air was the best horse Bob had bred so Bob didn’t hesitate when asked if he was happy for the vets to operate”, Margaret Jones said last night.
“After the operation, which found he had a twisted bowel, we had to keep him locked up in a stall to keep him quiet during the healing process”, Mrs Jones added.
“That was nigh on impossible so he was gelded within a couple of days”.
Northam Club Manager Verna Freind left WA for a short Sydney holiday after the meeting hoping to take in the first Miracle Mile held at Menangle this Sunday.
