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By Greg Prichard

Island Legend ($5 on TAB) broke a drought for trainer Nikki Hodgson with a perfectly-timed Christmas present win and now she’s hoping the same horse at the same track can kick off 2025 for her with another victory.

The six-year-old gelding will contest the final event of the day at Taree races on Tuesday, which is also the feature event on the card - the $30,000 Harrington Hotel Harrington Cup Benchmark 66 Handicap over 1300m.

Wins can be hard to come by when you train only a small team of horses, as Hodgson does at Wyong.

Island Legend (Braith Nock) returns following a Gosford win. Image by Bradley Photographers

Before Island Legend’s recent win Hodgson had not trained a winner since Rare Beauty scored at Scone on August 2.

But her horses still performed consistently well during that period with four seconds, three thirds and five fourths from 16 runners between the two wins.

The trick is to find a horse with at least some potential that responds positively to your approach and Island Legend’s recent record clearly indicates he has thrived since joining Hodgson’s stable. She is the horse’s sixth trainer.

Island Legend had previously raced 24 times for two wins, two seconds and four thirds and under Hodgson’s guidance he has had three starts for one win and two seconds.

The win came at his most recent start in a Benchmark 66 Handicap over 1258m at Taree on December 22.

It was his first start on this track and apprentice jockey William Stanley, who has ridden him in all three of the horse’s starts with Hodgson as trainer and will be aboard again on Tuesday, had him in second place during the run.

Island Legend went to the lead turning for home, but was immediately met with a challenge by Critical Time on straightening.

It looked like Critical Time would get the better of him, but Island Legend responded to the challenge and found another gear to win narrowly in a driving finish.

“He’s going well,” Hodgson said. “I don’t do anything particularly different with him to what I do with my other horses, but sometimes with the older horses a change is like a holiday to them.

“He’d still been competitive in his last six or seven starts before coming to me, finishing not far behind the winner but just not winning himself, so I was enthusiastic about him and he worked well from the start here at Wyong.

“It was a good win at his last start because he got left in front a long way from home when the leader dropped off, but he still kept kicking all the way down the straight.”

The track surface was rated a Good 4 that day and is again expected to be firm on Tuesday, which will suit Island Legend as all of his wins and four of his placings have come from his 15 starts on dry tracks.

Island Legend typically races not far off the speed, so from barrier five in the 10-horse field Stanley should be able to have the horse settling down in the first four. And from there it will be a matter of how well he can handle the battle in the home straight.

Island Legend is rated a $5 chance behind equal TAB favourites Zaru and Solutionist at $4.20.

Apart from looking after her own small team, Hodgson works as a stable foreman for Wyong trainer Kristen Buchanan.

“Kristen’s been a big help to me,” she said. “I keep my horses at her stable and I get mine through their work first thing in the morning before concentrating on hers.

“I’m slowly building up as a trainer. I’d like to get more horses and be able to go out on my own one day. Kristen puts in a good word for me with people in racing and I really appreciate that.”

Hodgson is confident Island Legend is ready to run well again: “He’s still got improvement in him for what will be his fourth run this campaign,” she said.

“He puts himself into the race and keeps himself out of trouble. He’s honest and consistent and Will knows him well now. I’m optimistic that with the right run he’ll be a good chance again.”

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