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![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3415091_web1_GroomKaylaMatyaswithNikkitysplit1.jpg\")
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George Williams \/ Free Press<\/p>\n
Groom Kayla Matyas has a special bond with \u2018princess\u2019 Nikkitysplit, winner of Tuesday\u2019s Hazel Wright Sire Stakes.<\/p>\n
Bred by longtime Manitoba owner-breeders Jerry Lambert and Lynn Mathews, Nikkitysplit is out of their mare Spiteofsuccess, which makes her a half-sister to the stakes-placed runner J L Copper, and the stakes winners in the family extend back through three generations.<\/p>\n
Lambert, who retired from his commercial painting business last year, has been breeding and racing horses for more than 40 years, and he knew he had something special in Nikkitysplit. \u201cSpeculating is a pretty nice, well-bred horse,\u201d he said when asked about the mating decision. \u201cI knew they\u2019d never beat her.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the human side, Nikkitysplit is groomed by Kayla Matyas and trained by six-time leading ASD trainer Tom Gardipy, Jr., who is enjoying a more relaxed atmosphere with a smaller stable this year. \u201cI\u2019m loving it,\u201d said Gardipy. \u201cYou get to spend more time with your horses, and horses like Nikkitysplit make training easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matyas has been working for Gardipy for five years and also has some pedigree, as the granddaughter of former longtime Downs trainer Tom Windross. The apple doesn\u2019t fall far from the tree, and there\u2019s a good work ethic across the board here. \u201cI love learning their personalities and their quirks and making them each happy in their own ways,\u201d said Matyas, when describing what she enjoys most about grooming horses. Her connection with Nikkitysplit runs particularly deep.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s very quirky and stubborn,\u201d said Matyas. \u201cSo we do lots of extra work with her to keep her happy, but she\u2019s kind of the princess. Anytime she\u2019s laying down, we cuddle in her stall. I love the end of mornings when they\u2019re all quiet and sleeping and you can go have a little cuddle time. That\u2019s when you know they really trust you, when they\u2019ve let you in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same could be said for apprentice jockey Ciera Pruitt, who scored her fifth win Wednesday night aboard Luka Grazie for trainer Jason Homer, and in the process lost her 10-pound apprentice allowance. She\u2019ll now only be allowed a five-pound break in the weights, which is still substantial. Pruitt is the daughter of a successful and hard-working trainer in Lise Pruitt, and her father is jockey Jerry Pruitt, one of the fiercest competitors in the saddle we ever saw here during his heyday.<\/p>\n
For the 22-year-old jockey, losing the bug weight is actually a relief. \u201cCouldn\u2019t be happier. I think it\u2019ll make me a better rider,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that it\u2019ll make me so tired. I\u2019m 112 naturally, so trying to take off so much weight, my body kind of started to reject me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her mother Lise has been instrumental in her development, providing guidance while allowing her daughter to forge her own path. \u201cI wanted her to be here but also to make her own way, not just as her mother\u2019s daughter, and she wants to succeed on her own merits too.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Trainer Jason Homer has been particularly supportive, providing Ciera with four of her five winners. \u201cHe\u2019s really taking care of me and he\u2019s giving me a lot of opportunities,\u201d said Ciera. \u201cHe\u2019s really trying to get my name out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ciera will need to ride hundreds of horses to gain the valuable experience she needs, but she\u2019s learning and improving faster than average, and she\u2019s got the genetics and upbringing to back her up.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the best indication of how well that upbringing has taken hold came when Lise Pruitt was asked about her daughter\u2019s recent success. With a loud, wide smile, she said simply: \u201cShe spun me!\u201d meaning her daughter accepted another mount instead of riding for Mom in the same race. In many barns, getting spun by your rider might cause hard feelings, but when it\u2019s your own daughter choosing the mount that gives her the best chance to succeed, it is a moment of pure maternal pride.<\/p>\n
Like Nikkitysplit, Ciera is proof that when good bloodlines meet proper care and the right environment, success tends to follow.<\/p>\n
Even if it means occasionally leaving mom at the starting gate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikkitysplit won the 18th running of the $40,000 Hazel Wright Sire Stakes on Tuesday, and she wasn\u2019t the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-258029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114838438113180270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}