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Emotional time for owner Crooks after Caloundra treble

14 April 2018

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By Glenn Davis

It was an emotional day for prominent owner Mick Crooks whose “Mishani” runners claimed three races at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday.

Crooks is the principal of Mishani Enterprises which owns Mishani Hustler, winner of the males’ division of the QTIS Two-Year-Old Handicap, Mishani Honcho in the Open Handicap and Mishani Bullitt in the Three-Year-Old Plate.

Crooks lost his wife Patti following a long illness earlier this month.

Mishani Honcho’s trainer Shane Edmonds sent his sprinter north as part of the gelding’s build up to the Tamworth Cup in two weeks.

However, the Inverell trainer, who has trained for Crooks for just over a year, may keep the five-year-old in Queensland for the winter.

“I’ve been training for Mike for about a year now,” Edmonds said.

“Mike’s wife, Pattti, died two weeks ago so I decided to spend some time with him and brought up Mishani Honcho to run at Caloundra.

“Mike’s had a tough run lately and it meant a lot to him to win with Mishani Honcho as he’s been one of his best horses.

“I’m getting him ready for the Tamworth Cup but if we don’t go there I might find a suitable race during the winter carnival up here.”

Five-year-old Mishani Honcho was formerly trained in Brisbane by Les Ross, winning the Group 3 Bruce McLachlan Stakes and Listed Sunshine Coast Classic.

Both Mishani Honcho and Mishani Hustler were ridden by apprentice Taylor Marshall while premier jockey Jeff Lloyd was aboard Mishani Bullitt.

Trainer Chris Anderson was delighted with Mishani Bullitt’s win in the Three-Year-Old Plate but was not getting carried away with the result.

“It was a super win and I’ll probably keep him to middle distance races during the winter,” Anderson said.

“He’ll run in a 1350 metre race at Doomben in two weeks then I’ll reassess him for the winter.”

“He’s come back a lot bigger and stronger horse this time in but today was just about starting him off in a set weights race.”

Racing Queensland webnews   April 14