3 minute read
Brenton Le Grand and Mandy Cottell look back on the ten-race program at Royal Randwick and bring you the talking points of the undercard.
Loving Cilla posts first win for Hickman
She was having just her fourth start for the Greg Hickman yard, but Loving Cilla ($6.50) has posted her first victory for the stable with a last-to-first win in the Midway.
The bonny daughter of Reliable Man was allowed to find her feet in the early stages of the 1800m contest for jockey Tyler Schiller before powering down the middle of the famous Randwick straight to overcome Philipsburg ($7.50) by a head at the finish. Go Troppo ($16) was a further three quarters of a length back in third.
Hickman was nostalgic about the win, and believes his mare may be looking for more ground.
"It was like the Randwick of old, back and got home down the outside," Hickman quipped.
"She might even get over a little bit further yet. She doesn't look like a stayer but she's going super."
Hoop Schiller agreed that his mount is capable of stretching out.
"She doesn't work like a horse going for a trip but she definitely races like one," Schiller said.
Berry back in the winner's stall
Tommy Berry has celebrated an emotional first win since returning from a lengthy ban, taking out Sydney's first two-year-old race of the season aboard the Michael Freedman-trained Manaal($19).
Berry spent eight months on the sidelines over improper dealings with a punter, only returning to the saddle at Rosehill on Wednesday.
He said the enforced break had given him a fresh perspective on life and racing and allowed him to spend precious time with his family.
"I learnt so much about myself while I was off," Berry said.
"I built such a good relationship with my kids, it's just made me come into racing with a new lease on life, a new way of looking at things.
"I've thought about this day for a long time now and I said to myself, 'I'm not going to cry, I've got to cop it on the chin, just move on'.
"But it's incredible the amount of support I've got from my family and friends, and so many people in racing - I feel very humbled and grateful to be back doing what I love.''
Berry and Freedman combined to claim the Golden Slipper with Stay Inside two years ago and Freedman hopes to give Manaal a chance to earn her place in the juvenile feature next autumn.
While the daughter of first season sire Tassort snuck under the guard of most punters in Saturday's Gimcrack Stakes (1000m), Freedman says her win reflects what she has been showing at home.
"She had come on a hell of a lot from the trials because she went into the trials a little bit underdone," Freedman said.
"We worked her Tuesday with one of our older horses and Tommy said, 'if she runs up to that she will be right in this'.
"She can go and have a nice little break now and we might be there in the autumn."
Tulloch Lodge colts dominate in Plate
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott made a clean sweep of the Breeders' Plate (1000m) with Zoustar colt Espionage ($7.50) leading home a stable trifecta.
The youngster staged a tough battle with Straight Charge ($4.60) over the final 200m before nailing him on the line to score by a short half-head with Prost ($20) running on for third, another three-quarters of a length away.
Espionage was a $1 million yearling purchase for James Harron and the bloodstock agent was thrilled to get the result in a race whose winners include successful sires Pierro (2011), Vancouver (2014) and Capitalist (2015), which Harron also raced.
"You just have to look at the winners that have come out of this and gone on to be good stallions," Harron said.
"It's got an incredibly important place in the breeding landscape in Australia and it's a race we always target."
Bott said all three placegetters were quality colts with bright futures and he will see how they come through Saturday before deciding which path each will take.
"Some may be Magic Millions types, some may be pretty good for the autumn and some may even push on to the a Golden Gift. There are different paths we can take and there's a bit of weighing up to do."
Ganbare prevails in the Dulcify
He's gone from winning a provincial Class 1 to a Listed winner in the space of a month and the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-prepared Ganbare ($21) has stamped himself as a potential Derby horse.
After sitting up close to the speed in a hotly run race, the son of Maurice was still giving on the line to hold off Pushy ($6) by a half length with race favourite Tom Kitten ($2F) a further neck back in third place, but never looking likely.
Co-trainer Bott explained that he's a colt possessing plenty of ability, with the stable having a plan from the outset.
"He's very uncomplicated and he's a horse that just keeps improving with racing," Bott said.
"Coming through the provincial grades there, we just wanted to go there and give him a bit of confidence and he was able to certainly take that and showed good improvement today. There's plenty of more upside going forward."
Winning hoop Tim Clark was full of praise for the Waterhouse/Bott combination and is looking forward to further riches later in the carnival.
"The pace was on but I find that the more pressure there is the more Gai and Adrian's horses thrive," Clark said.
"He fought it out really well. I thought he could get to a Derby trip, even this prep. Obviously the Spring Champion in three or four weeks' time is a good target for him."
Quote Of The Day: "Just the last half an hour how things can change, he's just walked out half a grade lame behind. Lucky enough before Redzel's second Everest he walked out sore on the same day so we decided to install a camera in his box. I'll go back and look at the footage of the last two or three hours and I'll find out exactly what happened." - Mazu's co-trainer Paul Snowden after he was late-scratched from the Premiere Stakes.
