3 minute read
Cliff Brown’s self-inflicted title of “worst trainer of two-year-olds” was given another resounding rebuttal in the shape of impressive debutant winner Bluestone on Friday night.
Two weeks ago, Inferno's thumping first-up win in the penultimate Leg of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe series immediately disproved the Australian's open pre-race statement where he exaggeratedly played down his record with juveniles.
Inferno will later in the night likely start as favourite in the grand final, the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe (1200m), with Bluestone's two-length win in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden-2 race over 1100m coming in as a nice early warm-up.
Ridden forward outside Try Mak Mak (Juan Paul van der Merwe), the son of Hallowed Crown was off and gone once jockey Michael Rodd gave him his head at the top of the straight.
Trainer Michael Clements' and Falcon Racing No 7 Stable's newcomer Iron Ruler (Vlad Duric) stuck on well for second with Mr Malek (Joseph Azzopardi) closing in late for third place another 1 ¼ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 4.54secs for the 1100m on Polytrack.
Brown was obviously delighted he was wrong about his own training ability, but more so for the connections of Bluestone.
"I'm so happy for Dennis Cornwell. He's my best friend here but I'm probably his 17th best friend here," he said in his typical self-deprecating style.
"We had one horse in Sydney we thought would be a Group horse, he is still a maiden. It's great Dennis broke the drought with this horse who produced a fantastic effort tonight.
"Michael rode him a treat, and he should go on to bigger and better things. He's a beauty."
Brown said Bluestone was purchased for him by Inglis agent Peter Twomey at last year's Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.
"Peter liked him and told me about him. We bought him, well done Pete," said Brown.
Rodd said that Brown's second two-year-old winner and 32nd overall for this season was a ready-made individual on whom he was given the simpler task of pointing in the right direction.
"He's really well educated. You're obviously a little nervous how they'll go for the first time," said the Australian jockey.
"He was great out of the barrier and we had a soft lead. He didn't look at the shadows in the straight, he was a real professional."
Rodd was having a great night at the office as he went on to ride a three-in-a-row with Boy Next Door and River Radiance in the next two races, with Inferno coming up next in Race 5.
