Hosking walking to Gold Cup shot

By Jordan Gerrans

As Churchable trainer Jamie Hosking can vividly recall the first few days of Jay Walking’s life, he admits the chasers rise to prominence is even more rewarding.

The son of Hosking’s former top bitch Micks Recall has continued to step up through the Queensland Golden Greys Summer Racing Carnival.

He ran into second in the Group 1 Golden Sands Final earlier this month over 600 metres behind Western Australian star Miss Envy.

A maiden tilt at 710 metre racing followed and Jay Walking handled that assignment without much fuss last Thursday evening, scoring in 41.40 seconds in a mixed fourth and fifth grade event.

The task goes up to an entire new level this week when the emerging star steps up to a heat of the Group 1 Gold Cup.

“It's very rewarding,” Hosking said in regards to the journey he has been on with his kennel flag bearer.

“When you've got a dog that you've had the mother of and we've had them since they were born. 

“We walked the litter around them all and did all the education.

“So, to get them to the highest level in the sport, it's very, very rewarding.”

The youthful conditioner has been on an interesting journey with Jay Walking.

In the early days, he wasn’t sure if the son of Fernando Bale and Micks Recall liked racing at The Q.

He took the talented chaser away for a trip to his native Northern Territory in July and August of last year and the team returned home with a Group 3 Darwin Cup for their troubles.

Since then, those concerns about racing at Brisbane’s showpiece racing venue have seemed to fade into the distance.

Jay Walking hadn’t won at The Q prior to the Darwin jaunt.

He has since racked up 10 victories across all three tracks and several different distances.

Hosking – who owns Jay Walking himself – has steadily built the stayer up in distance and he has progressed smoothly from 600 metre racing up to the 710 metre trip.

“Jay Walking has always been a very fast dog,” the top local dog man said.

“I've always tried to put a bit of cold water on him, just because he sometimes doesn't always show it in a race.

“He's just really learned how to race the last sort of month to six weeks and is racing really high on confidence.

“He is able to show his true ability at the moment.”

The aim of the game is to obviously win Group 1 races, but Hosking was quietly chuffed to run second to Miss Envy earlier this month in a time of 34.25 seconds.

Miss Envy has raced at the highest level across her career as she has campaigned around the country and Jay Walking finished within a length of the champion runner.

“It was a very, very good dog that was in front of him in Miss Envy,” he said.

“She's run good times all around the country and we've sort of only really been to Darwin and raced around Brisbane.

“So, to sort of take some positives out of it, she is one of the best bitches in the last couple of years and he sort of went toe-to-toe with her the whole race.”

Jay Walking’s mother Micks Recall was a top stayer for Hosking before she eventually retired in May of 2022.

She contested elite staying events such as the Zoom Top and Fanta Bale Super Stayers Final as well as placing third in the local Gold Cup of 2022.

Back then it was only raced at Group 3 level.

Micks Recall also tasted Group glory in Hosking’s hometown of Darwin.

The smiling trainer was always hopeful Jay Walking could follow in his mother’s footsteps and he is pleased to see him put it into action on the big summer carnival stage.

“She was probably very similar,” he said.

“She ran very fast times over 500, 600 metres and then she took to 700 metres just as easy as she did them other distances.

“He's had all the right work for the steps going forward.”

Looking into 2026, Hosking also has high hopes for another progeny of Micks Recall.

Red Hot Penny is from the subsequent litter to Jay Walking as Micks Recall was mated with Aussie Infrared for her second litter.

Red Hot Penny has won on eight occasions and placed on 12 others from 29 career starts.

She ran third on Thursday evening over 600 metres at the Q2 Parklands circuit in her first attempt over the longer trip. 

“She's probably gone under the radar a little bit, just hasn't had a lot of luck," he said. 

“So, I think she's one to keep an eye out for.”