It was the 55-year-old’s maiden ride in the lucrative juvenile feature and saw him produce an inspired performance from the outside barrier on the speedy daughter of I Am Invincible.
The victory, which delivered connections of the undefeated filly a $1.2 million payday, continued a staller season for Lloyd who sits atop the Brisbane Jockey Premiership, having easily claimed the 2015/16 Premiership.
“She did it all and she did it tough,” Lloyd said.
“She never really came back to me and I had concerns throughout the whole race that she might have got across too quick and be doing too much.
“She’d had enough in the last 50m but she was entitled to.”
Local trainer Toby Edmonds, who purchased Houtzen from the draft of Yarraman Park Stud for $105,000 at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, said the win was a fantastic result for a group of loyal owners.
While he had deliberated the tactics Lloyd would employ from the outside gate, Edmonds said the consensus pre-race was to give the filly an opportunity to utilise her natural speed to cross the field.
“She was the best filly today, Jeff was really aggressive and she ran through the bridle a little bit and got a little tired but it was such a great effort,” Edmonds said.
“We talked about riding her differently but we thought that if we took her out of her regular pattern it might not work so we’d just let her roll and see what happens.”
“The Magic Millions for us is everything because it’s our home town carnival and all of the guys in this horse are Gold Coasters except for a couple of outsiders.”
Houtzen ($4) clocked 1.09.49 for the 1200m dash, accounting for fast-finishing runner-up Chauffer ($19) by half a length, with Victorian filly Madeenaty ($9) a further two lengths away in third.
