Skip to main navigation Skip to main content

Soxagon set for back-to-back Buffering triumphs

30 December 2021

Share this page

Share on a platform

Or copy the page link

By Glenn Davis

Trainer Mark Currie is hopeful stable star Soxagon can complete a remarkable recovery from injury to claim successive wins in The Buffering at Doomben on Saturday.

Soxagon needs to win the $200,000 feature to gain another wildcard entry into the $1 million Magic Millions Cup over 1400 metres at the Gold Coast in two weeks.

The six-year-old claimed the 2020 iteration of The Buffering in dominant fashion, downing local stars Niccanova and Emerald Kingdom.

The son of Rocker went within centimetres of pulling off a Magic Millions Cup triumph when edged out in a tight finish by the Greg Hickman-trained Eleven Eleven.

Soxagon underwent surgery for a chipped fetlock following the Magic Millions Cup and then developed feet problems which kept him off the scene for more than six months while he completed his rehabilitation.

“He had every chance in the Magic Millions Cup and then went for a spell but we found he had a chipped fetlock and had surgery,” Currie said.

“He then developed a heap of feet issues while he was spelling."

Soxagon eventually made his comeback finishing a close fourth at Doomben in September in his only lead-up run to the Listed Weetwood Handicap when he finished 10th just over three lengths behind star sprinter Apache Chase.

Soxagon showed he was back on track with an eye-catching third to Roheryn in the Listed Falvelon at Doomben on Boxing Day.

“In hindsight I should never had started him in the Weetwood,” Currie said.

“He’s in good shape but he’s never had to back-up before.”

Soxagon has won eight times in 26 starts, earning almost $700,000 in prizemoney for hobby breeder Brian Burke who will miss seeing him as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.

Burke was a former sports journalist at The Australian newspaper and long serving Sports Editor at the Courier-Mail before retiring in 2013.

A keen student of breeding, Burke paid only $600 for Soxagon’s mother Strike On Gold and rolled the dice by putting her to Stakes placed sire Rocker.

Soxagon got his name because he had four white socks when he was foaled but the front two disappeared by the time he was branded.