GTs Jake is a horse for the course and he's now the fastest horse on the Fall Meet thus far
at Northlands Park courtesy of his gate-to-wire romp this past Saturday.
Leaving from post five 'Jake' would sail through fractions of :27.3, :56.4 and 1:25.3 before stopping the clock in 1:53.3 for a new lifetime best and a Fall Meet's mark for the Park.
"He's got his power back now," says co-owner and trainer Gerald McGinn. "He'd been sick for the most part of the year and then he started to come around near the end of August," he explains. "To this day we don't know what it was, but Jake just seemed to come out of it on his own."
McGinn compared 'Jake' to his former stable star GTs Triple J.
"I think Jake is a little better than Triple J," he says. "But it's a funny thing though... I had GTs Lakota around here in 2009 and 2010. He was probably one of the fastest horses - for raw speed - that I've ever had, but he wouldn't stay pacing... We ended up giving him away."
Anytime a McGinn horse makes it to the winner's circle you can usually count on a large group of supporters smiling for a picture.
"It’s a real family affair,” states McGinn. “My grandson Scott is getting really good at looking after things around the barn," he says. "He's a big part of the operation right now and his younger brother's Daniel and Jason are coming along well too. The boys all work hard and they're good kids too."
From ten career starts at Northlands Park, GTs Jake has six wins, three seconds and a forth place finish. In only his second career start here Jake went up against the back-up class. In that test he made a first up move, rolled off stride, regrouped quickly and then circled up late in the mile to finish second to Hilldrop Shady.
'Jake' just seems to love Northlands.
(Northlands Park)