Trainer says unbeaten Alice Springs filly Dakota Lee is one to watch
From the moment Terry Gillett first laid eyes on Dakota Lee, he knew she was something special.
Which gives extra significance to the fact his talented filly carries the same name as his daughter, also a star on the rise as a 16-year-old jockey, and set to get her apprentice rider’s licence.
Gillett, a six-time Alice Springs trainers’ premiership winner, knows a good horse when he sees one.
And he’s not wrong in this instance.
Dakota Lee’s whopping 7.5-length win in the $18,500 Gillen Club Handicap (1200m) at Pioneer Park took the three-year-old’s record to a perfect six triumphs from six starts on Sunday.
“She’s going good. Her past three starts she’s won by seven or more lengths,” Gillett told horsebetting.com.au.
“She’s just getting better and better. She’s maturing into a really nice filly.
“She won a maiden as a two-year-old, but of the four horses she beat in the maiden one was Miles Prower, who ended up winning four races (from five starts) after that.
“We always liked her from day dot. Dakota’s done most of the work with her, my daughter, that’s who she’s named after.
“She rides all her trackwork and she’s ridden her in all her jumpouts.”
Dakota Lee, and her namesake in the saddle, are both on a similar and rapid developmental rise together at Pioneer Park.
“It’s a family affair. Dakota’s done all the work with her and my wife Leanne looks after her,” Gillett said.
“Dakota will get signed up as an apprentice (on Wednesday). Hopefully in a month or so she can ride her on race day. She’s 16.
“She loves it. She’s also clerk of the course on race day, and her riding has improved out of sight.
“She’s had 21 trial rides now. Both Dakotas are going forward in leaps and bounds.
“It’s a pretty exciting time for me and Leanne.”
Gillett is dreaming big for both Dakotas who he holds dear to his heart. He has pictured them combining to win a metropolitan race in Brisbane.
And with the way both are going this is a realistic ambition.
“If it all goes to plan she (Dakota Lee) will run a 1400m race, then she’ll run in the Guineas (during the Alice Springs Cup Carnival),” he said.
“And then she might be weighted out of a lot of races in the Territory, so I was going to take her across to Brisbane and pick out a metro race and see how she measures up on the grass.
“Then if she’s all good we’ll go to a Listed or a Group race.
“If Dakota can ride her in the city – an NT-trained horse ridden by an NT apprentice – that’d be amazing.
“Some of the horses I had running in Sydney have won Group races. I rate Dakota Lee as good as the fillies we had at those times when we had Stella Maree and Picholine.”
The former was a multiple Listed winner, the latter a runner-up in the Group 1 Flight Stakes.
Along with Gillett’s daughter, Stan Tsaikos looks set for a lot more success aboard Dakota Lee.
The Territory’s leading jockey with 40 wins so far this season has ridden her in her past three starts which yielded victories by seven or more lengths on each occasion.
“Stan knows her, so we’ll keep the same recipe going forward,” Gillett said of the impressive Victorian hoop.
“We’ve had the No.1 strike rate in the past 12 months across Australia. Stan was trying to break in up here and the past 12 months he’s set the world on fire.
“He won the Alice Springs Jockeys’ Premiership last year. It’s only been 16 months we’ve been linked together.
“And he’s a mile in front in the jockeys’ premiership for the whole of the NT at the moment.”
Gillett was also quick to praise the work of his wife Leanne as the unsung hero behind the success of his stable.
“Leanne is our backbone. Without Leanne we wouldn’t be anywhere. We do the trackwork in the morning and Leanne is the driving force behind it,” he said.