On the double: James Winks rode two winners at Caulfield. Photo: Paul Rovere
DESPITE Peter Moody having a slight hiccup yesterday when the favourite Elusive King was withdrawn at the barrier, his back-up runner, Almodovar, made it three wins in a row in the listed Galilee Series Final over 2406 metres.
Almodovar ($5.50) was ridden back in the field by Linda Meech and was giving the leaders a big start coming to the turn but unleashed a powerful sprint to grab Right Of Refusal ($5.50) and Cuban Sunday ($7.50), who had run to the front halfway up the straight.
Assistant trainer Tom Brideoake said he was unsure whether Almodovar would head towards the VRC St Leger or South Australian Derby, or perhaps both, but was confident the son of Pins is going to develop into a nice stayer.
”He’s really going the right way as far as staying goes and every time he steps up in distance, he steps up to the plate,” Brideoake said.
”It’s good to get the black-type win, but we’ll just see how he pulls up before deciding where he goes next.”
With Black Caviar continuing on her winning way in Sydney, it was a three-state, black-type treble for the Moody stable, with promising filly Cute Emily recording an all-the-way win in the South Australian Sires’ Produce Stakes at Morphettville.
Yesterday’s Caulfield meeting was sponsored by Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Stud but it was his brother Sheikh Mohammed who took home the trophies, with the Darley operation, headed by Peter Snowden, enjoying a winning double.
In the Shadwell Cup (1200 metres), Burnout ($6.50), who was having just his second start, scored an impressive win and assistant trainer Paul Snowden believes the son of Lonhro, who came from last to win comfortably, has a nice future.
”We’ve always had a good opinion of him but things just didn’t fall his way on a wet track at his debut,” he said.
Burnout showed no early speed but after James Winks elected to come to the inside, he showed good acceleration when the gaps appeared to beat Caravaggio ($5.5) by 1¼ lengths.
Snowden, who believes Burnout will be much improved by blinkers, said the colt would now head to a 1400-metre race at Flemington in two weeks and if he runs well he may step up to better races in Queensland.
”He’s just a big kid and I think the blinkers will make a big difference to him. He’ll get a mile [1600 metres] and his next start will determine whether he heads up to Brisbane,” Snowden said.
Broadcast ($21) brought up the double for Darley and Winks with a strong finishing effort to win the Nadeem Handicap (1440 metres). Being suited by the strong pace he came from well back in the field to beat Too Deadly ($14 into $9) by a head.
Snowden said Broadcast, who had won only one previous race, had been a frustrating horse for the stable after being runner-up to some smart horses such as Under The Eiffel and Do Ra Mi in recent starts.
”It’s been frustrating. [Jockey] Mark Zahra said we had been doing everything right and we should have got away with a win, but we’ve just been stiff running into two quality horses,” Snowden said.
Winks shared riding honours with Dean Yendall, who scored on Cat’s Pyjamas for Mark Kavanagh and Berlioz for the David Hayes stable.