3 minute read
Rated as the nap of the day, Red Rover didn’t disappoint his supporters in the penultimate race of Sunday’s 10-race programme, the $70,000 Class 3 race over 1000m.
Ridden with great confidence by first-time partner Benny Woodworth, the $7 chance was always within striking distance after Lonhro Gold (Yusoff Fadzli) galloped to the front to dictate terms.
Upon cornering for the judge, Super Posh (Wong Chin Chuen) rolled off, creating a wide gap for Red Rover to shoot through. Woodworth needed no invitation to take it up, and once Red Rover was one length clear, the pair were in no mood to relinquish the advantage.
Stablemate Man Of Mystery (Nizar Mohammad) posed as a fleeting threat on the outside but he peaked on his run while Baffert (Ben Thompson) had no better luck even if his challenge was a lot more incisive.
In the end, that third win in a row for Mark Walker's O'Reilly five-year-old was all done and dusted with Baffert not faring better than second place half-a-length away. Man Of Mystery filled the trifecta another length away.
A five-year-old by O'Reilly, Red Rover was wrapping up a dream weekend for his owner, the Fortuna NZ Racing Stable, who saddled their stable star Melody Belle to a resounding win in the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday.
"Full credit to John Galvin (head of Fortuna NZ Racing Stable) who also had a good day at Flemington yesterday. It's been a great weekend for Fortuna," said Walker.
"Full credit also to Dr Dan Shaw who performed the wind op on Red Rover. Veterinary science is so advanced now they can do these ops very well.
"It's not easy for a horse to win three in a row. He's a promising horse who can go up to Class 2 but it only gets tougher from now on."
Woodworth said from his own experience, horses who came back from such procedures generally lose some of their ability, but thankfully, Red Rover has bucked the trend.
"From my experience, nine out of 10 horses who have wind ops don't turn out to be good," said the Malaysian jockey.
"But this one seems to be still going well. It was my first time riding him in a race, but I've ridden him in a few gallops.
"He's a very straightforward horse, a typical jump-and-run type of horse. When Yusoff came across, he pulled a little bit, though.
"But he then settled, and we were able to get a run between horses at the top of the straight. He was under pressure in the last 100m as he wanted to lay out, but he still quickened very well."
Red Rover has now taken his smart record to three wins, one second and one third from five starts for prizemoney that has now tipped over the $100,000 mark for the Fortuna NZ Racing Stable.
As for Woodworth, he went on to ride a treble in the last race, the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1000m with Grand Choice ($36) to keep up the pressure on premiership leader Vlad Duric.
The reigning Singapore champion jockey, who is bidding for a third title in a row, extended his lead with a hat-trick of wins thanks to Hyde Park, Al Green and Shangani with Woodworth responding with only one winner through Winning Legend in Race 5.
At that point, Duric was 13 winners clear, but with Woodworth getting one back with Red Rover and eventually the 3-3 equaliser with Grand Choice, it is back to an 11-win gap between the two rivals. With nine meetings left in the season, mathematically, it can still swing either way, even if most think Duric holds a comfortable enough buffer to see it out to the end.
