Refreshed Prince Cheri takes Tatts Cup

PRINCE Cheri snapped a losing sequence that stretched more than four years when he won the Listed $150,000 Tattersall’s Club Cup (2400m) at Royal Randwick yesterday.

A brilliant Corey Brown ride drove the nine-year-old Prince Cheri to a narrow win, providing trainer John O’Shea with his first stakes winner since he left the Godolphin sta- bles in May. O’Shea acknowledged Brown’s well-judged ride as the contributing factor to Prince Cheri scoring his first win in 1570 days.

“Prince Cheri was crying out for that ride, where you can hold him up for as long as you can,’’ O’Shea told Sky Thoroughbred Central.

“The horse has a great turn of foot for about 200m, but you can’t flush him out too early.

“There is none better than C. Brown to do that. I’m very appreciative of Corey’s ride.’’

In an exciting finish, Prince Cheri ($6) ran down Vassal ($3.80) to win by a half length with another nine-year-old veteran Destiny’s Kiss ($12) running on late for third, a length away. Favourite Broadside ($2.05) tried to lead throughout, but he was under pressure from the top of the straight, finishing fourth.

Prince Cheri had not won a race since taking out the Kingston Town Stakes in September, 2013 but an injury did keep him off the track for more than 18 months.

O’Shea only took over the training of Prince Cheri this season and the nine-year-old seems to be racing with new enthusiasm this summer.

“Prince Cheri has a wonderful demeanour and is by the German stallion, Lando, and in Europe the breed race until they are eight or nine,’’ O’Shea said. “The way he goes about his work at the stable is indicative of that.’’

Destiny’s Kiss ran a blinder under 61kg to finish from well back on the turn to run third.

Champion jockey Blake Shinn rode his second Randwick treble in three days after partnering promising Savacool, Snitzel Day (on protest) and the O’Shea-trained Regine.