Veteran Kiwi breeder Jim Wallace nearly sold Titch as a yearling but was talked out of it by his son Jim jnr.  That piece of advice continued to pay dividends on Wednesday when Titch won the G1 Auckland Cup (3200m) at Ellerslie.

Titch (6g Lord Ballina – Our Sophie by Kaapstad) trailed front-runners Solid Billing and Payback before grinding home to defeat Showcause (Giant’s Causeway) and Castle Heights (Golan).

The Kevin Myers trained gelding created a record of sorts in the NZ$1 million event.  It was the first time in living memory that a jumper had won the Auckland Cup.

“He’s not a bad hurdler, is he?” 90 year-old Jim Wallace snr claimed.  “Our family has had a long association with Kevin – trainers don’t come much better than him.  Titch has never been fitter.”

Titch won hurdle races at Sandown (2) and Moe during a winter campaign in Melbourne last year.  He returned home to finish a long-head second to Showcause in the New Zealand Cup at Riccarton before exacting revenge on that gelding at Ellerslie.

The Wallace family stood his sire Lord Ballina (Bletchingly) at their Ardsley Stud base in Masterton.  Titch is from his last crop and is one of 44 stakes winners generated in a stud career that spanned the years 1986 to 2003.

One of his best was the Ardsley Park homebred Cent Home.  He was trained by Jim jnr and was a G1 winner of the Kelt Capitol and Captain Cook Stakes in NZ and the G2 St George Stakes at Caulfield.

Titch is one of six winners for unraced mare Our Sophie.  Her Street Cry gelding Streets Away is a last-start Rosehill winner and the mare has a 2yo filly and a yearling filly by Fast ‘n’ Famous.

Titch was ridden by Opie Bosson and he also piloted Jezabeel to win the 1998 Auckland Cup.  She went on to a career-high victory in the 1998 Melbourne Cup but Titch would be better off at Warrnambool in May than Flemington on the first Tuesday in November.