Spring Goals for Nicconi Debut Winner

Scoring a dazzling debut victory at Caulfield on Saturday was exciting two year-old Tony Nicconi, who is not surprisingly by Widden Stud’s quiet achiever Nicconi.

One of 32 juvenile winners produced this season by the Hayes / Dabernig training partnership out of Lindsay Park, Tony Nicconi had his debut delayed until now due to shinsoreness, but the wait has been worthwhile.

Partnered by Luke Nolen, Tony Nicconi went forward went forward from his wide gate in the field of 10 to stalk the leader and shot away down the running to win the 1200 metre open juvenile event by four lengths.

“We’ll probably keep him in work now and focus on the early spring,” said Tom Dabernig.

“The Caulfield Guineas is a race you always think of, but he’s a very fast horse so we’ll keep him to the sprint races to start.”

A homebred for Peter Devitt and the Gordon family, who also bred and raced his sire Nicconi, Tony Nicconi is the fourth winner from Elusive Quality (UA) mare Wickham, who comes from the family of US Group I winner Gomo. Wickham was covered again by Nicconi last spring.

Nicconi has had a great season with over 100 winners of $5.7 million in prizemoney including four stakes-winners and rising star sprinter Nature Strip.

Nicconi stands at a fee of $24,750 this spring.