LATE DECISION GETS PONSONBY ANOTHER WINNER

WEDNESDAY: February 19, 2025: SOMETIMES spur of the moment decisions are the best.

Hawkesbury trainer James Ponsonby wasn’t going to back up Philipsburg at Warwick Farm today after he raced at Newcastle last Saturday.

At the last minute on Monday morning he chose to accept with the gelding for the Benchmark 72 Handicap (2140m) – and it proved a winning move.

Ponsonby, after scoring with $21 chance Socrates first-up at Newcastle yesterday, doubled up when $20 chance Philipsburg came from last to reel in his rivals and clinch his eighth victory.

Winona Costin, who along with Ponsonby’s wife Keryn, played a major role keeping the stable going in the last three months when the trainer was sidelined with a broken leg, rode both horses.

“Philipsburg came home after finishing fourth last Saturday and ate up,” Ponsonby said this afternoon.

“He was very bright on Monday morning, and I decided to accept with him.

“That was his fifth start after resuming at Wyong on Australia Day, and here he is back in the winning list.”

Costin brought Philipsburg from last approaching the turn with a strong surge down the outside in the straight to nail Newcastle trainer Jason Deamer’s recent winner Jack Duggan ($7) and $3.10 favorite Decadent Tale.

To say the Per Incanto seven-year-old has been a terrific horse for Ponsonby and his owners would be a real understatement.

He was purchased online for $20,000 in October 2020 – and has now earned just over $512,000.

“Philipsburg might have won half a million dollars, but he has given our family and our owners a million dollars worth of memories,” Ponsonby said.

“He is a very sound horse and had raced only once in New Zealand as a two-year-old on Boxing Day 2019 when we bought him.

 “Ironically, had I known then that he was trained by Jamie Richards (now based in Hong Kong), I probably wouldn’t have looked at him.

“He won three of his first four starts for us, and was placed in a Highway Handicap at Rosehill Gardens in the other run.

“Philipsburg has won between 1400m and today’s 2140m, including four metropolitan races, and he has been placed a few times at Royal Randwick.”

Ponsonby revealed an offer at one stage came from Hong Kong to sell the gelding.

“We were offered $250,000 when he was running around in Highways in town, and now he has won over $500,000,” he said.

Ponsonby has another outsider Field Legend (currently $26), with Costin aboard, lining up in the Provincial Benchmark 64 Handicap (2000m) at his home track meeting tomorrow, but isn’t confident of clinching a hat-trick by upsetting fellow Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup’s $1.80 favorite Sunset Park.

But you never know. After all, when you’re hot, you’re hot!