CROSSING the border to ride in South Australia is becoming a pleasurable and highly successful exercise these days for jockey Dean Holland.
The Melbourne based Holland won the Adelaide cup in March, had a winner on the day racing resumed at Mount Gambier in April and notched a double at Glenburnie last Friday.
The second leg was aboard Golden Authority ($2.40-$2) in the $50,000 Scott Group of Companies Mount Gambier Gold Cup.
That was his second Mount Gambier Gold Cup victory, having won it two years ago on the Ballarat stayer Survived, and Holland’s good form continued on Saturday at Donald with an early double.
For cup winning trainer, Stawell based Dane Smith, it was his third cup victory in 2019 following success in the February Colac cup with Golden Authority and Edenhope cup in March with Tres Dieci.
Holland gave Golden Authority the ideal run in fifth spot before reaching the lead near the dog leg and thwarting a late charge from Super Haze.
A Super Haze win would have been a bad result for bookmakers after being heavily backed ($19-$8.50). and his long sustained run from the rear of the field ended shortly before the winning post.
“I was always confident in the run even though the horse has been up a long time” Holland stated after dismounting.
“I think it may have been an after thought by connections to run him today but it worked out well.”
Golden Authority was well supported to run favourite ($2.40-$2) on the strength of a second in the Terang cup last month and a ninth in a much stronger Warrnambool cup on May 2.
Punters also rallied for the jumper Dormello Mo ($9-$4.80) which ran sixth.
The real big winner on the day was the reconstructed track which surprised almost everybody with the way it handled over 50mms of rain in the preceding days.
It was rated only a Soft 7 and some jockeys were of the opinion it raced as a Soft 6.
The downside was the attendance, the smallest Mount Gambier cup crowd (besides the transferred cup meetings in in 2015 and 2017) in living memory.
In form apprentice Raquel Clark rode a winning double to take her total to eight winners at the last four Limestone Coast meetings.
To make it a good day for the locals, six of the nine winners came from Mount Gambier stables.
INSTANT SUCCESS
THERE is nothing like a local winner to raise the spirits of a cup day crowd.
That was most evident after the Blue Lake handicap, won by a new horse to the Richard Wilson stable in Pickelhaube.
“I have only had him for five weeks and he came here in good order” Wilson said of the former Queenslander which had won at Ipswich in late March before heading south.
“He is only an average track worker but put it all together today” he added to the cheers of the large number of owners on hand.
Although Pickelhaube was given the run of the race by Clark, the four year old gelding was clearly headed by the plunge horse Arcturos ($11-$4.80) inside the final furlong before rallying for a stirring victory.
Another local Dyagilev was sent out favourite ($3.50-$2.90) and he over-raced in the early stages before leading and finishing a distant third.
The Post family have a habit of supplying a long priced winner from time to time at Glenburnie and did so again in the 1200 metre maiden with Press On.
It was truly a family affair as Press On is trained by Bob and Kane Post, part owned by Bob and Pat Post and was ridden by Kane’s wife, Kate Walters.
Press On belied his big odds ($31) to race three wide all the way and then run past the well supported Grassmere Miss ($7-$4.60) half way up the straight.
READY FOR ADELAIDE
THE Jenny Gow-Whyte trained Soul Fire stylishly won the Volcano Handicap to get under the guard of most punters as well as Gow-Whyte.
At only his second run from a seven month spell, Soul Fire careered away to leave some handy types in his wake.
“I was not expecting him to be so dominant today and this run was to get him ready for next week at Morphettville” Gow-Whyte admitted.
“He has had a lot of knee problems and enjoys the sting out of the ground.”
Money stayed with the bookies when Canny Move ($5-$3.90), Machinegun Jubs ($11-$7) and Tildy Lad ($9.50-$5.50) ran third, fourth and last respectively.
The stars finally aligned for the Ricky Bruhn trained Tontein, winner of the 1550 metre maiden and the first leg of Holland’s double.
The four year old gelding has been somewhat of a pocket burner for punters at times, but he always looked the winner on Friday from the top of the straight.
However, Tontein still needed plenty of Holland’s persuasion in the concluding stages to eventually get the better of the solidly backed favourite Highly Skilled ($6-$2.50).
HUGGED THE RAILS
ALSO Adelaide bound this weekend is Elusive Rose, the easiest winner of the day (five lengths) in the 2057 metre BM 64 handicap.
It took a masterly Declan Bates ride to extricate the Peter Hardacre trained mare from a difficult position at the 500 metres when mid field and on the rails.
A split decision by Bates to opt for a rails run had favourite punters cheering when Elusive Rose ($2.50-$2.10) speared through along the fence to make the race her own in the space of 150 metres.
“Her ‘grand final’ is in Adelaide next week and I certainly want Declan on her again” a smiling Hardacre said.
Great displays of jumping and no falls in the steeplechase and hurdle helped set the scene for a good day’s racing.
Murray Bridge trained Grant Young had success in the steeplechase when the experienced Spying On You did an exceptional job with 71.5 kilograms to come from last in the middle stages and win his 12th career race.
Punters were on the ball when they backed The Other Half ($6-$3.30) to win the 3160 metre hurdle.
The Patrick Ryan (Warrnambool) trained gelding was ridden by Will Gordon, an Englishman who had a very successful stint in New Zealand prior to moving to Australia at the start of the year.
Gordon had The Other Half poised to pounce on the home turn and left Tangara in his wake after jumping the final flight.
HAPPY CONCLUSION
A VERY good second to the promising galloper Grandview Avenue at Warrnambool 10 days earlier had punters keen to back the local galloper Royal Boss in the final event.
Royal Boss ($4.60-$3.60) gave Clark her double when he had just enough in hand to beat Pewter in an exciting end to cup day.
His trainer Michael O’Leary mulled over running Royal Boss at Mount Gambier or saving him for another day.
“If the track had been down graded, I would have scratched him.
“It’s (the win) great as most of his owners are locals and a win on cup day is special.
“He’ll have a week or two off before we find another race for him.”
The money arrived for Kodakhan ($5-$3.50) but he was a beaten contender at the top of the straight.
Cup time continues in the region with the popular Casterton cup this Sunday while the next Limestone Coast meeting will be at Penola on Sunday, May 26.
Ride of the day: Declan Bates (Elusive Rose)
Black bookers: Farewell Greta, Elusive Rose
