PUNK POWER: Allen’s brilliant ride seals Cup
SOUTH Australian mare Pretty Punk, superbly ridden by Ben Allen, proved too strong for her rivals in yesterday’s $250,000 Group 3 Hobart Cup over 2400m, beating the well-backed Andrea Mantegna, with Fastnet Dragon the first Tasmanian horse home in third place. Pretty Punk was also well backed to win the race, starting at $7, and she could stay on to tackle the Group 3 Launceston Cup on Wednesday fortnight. If successful she would capture the major cups double bonus of $100,000 that is split evenly between the owners and trainers Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas.
SOUTH Australian mare Pretty Punk delivered a careerbest effort to score a courageous win in the $250,000 Group 3 Sky Racing Hobart Cup over 2400m at Elwick yesterday.
Pretty Punk ($7) was given the run of the race by her replacement jockey Ben Allen, who only picked up the ride two days earlier courtesy of Craig Williams being suspended.
The Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas-trained mare forged to the lead in the home straight.
But she looked under threat when the well-backed favourite Andrea Mantegna ($3.60) loomed to win.
But Pretty Punk answered the challenge and under strong hands and heels riding from Allen, hit the line a long neck clear of the favourite with Fastnet Dragon ($9) 1¼ lengths away third.
Macdonald applauded the young Allen’s ride and suggested he would not have complained had his mare been beaten.
“I haven’t often said this about a ride but had my mare been beaten I would have still declared it a great ride from Ben [Allen],” Macdonald said.
“I’m ever so glad we did win because it’s always great when a plan comes to fruition.
“I set this mare for the race just after she won at Morphettville about eight weeks ago and then she won at Flemington on the way down here and I knew then we had the right horse for a Tasmanian campaign.”
The win gave Macdonald his first feature race double in Tasmania. His quality mare Gogo Grace demolished a top field in the $150,000 Group 3 Bow Mistress Trophy in Hobart last Friday.
“I sent two horses for the carnival and they have both done the job and a lot of the credit must go to my stable foreman Yuichi Mori who has done a brilliant job looking after them here in Tasmania," Macdonald said.
“We booked them in to Jenny James’s Patherton Park Racing Stables at Seven Mile Beach and they settled in so well that I’m sure that too has played a role in the wins.
“Yuichi [Mori] has been with me for about eight years and he is worth his weight in gold.”
Macdonald is unsure whether to keep Pretty Punk in Tasmania for the Launceston Cup on Wednesday fortnight or send her home and aim her at the Adelaide Cup over 3200m next month.
“I never make decisions on race days.
“But I am a firm believer in the adage that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush so the Launceston Cup might just be the right option.
“But Gogo Grace will def- initely be staying on for the Vamos Stakes [Group 3 worth $150,000] in Launceston in a fortnight because that’s over 1400 metres and that’s her pet distance.”
Andrea Mantegna battled on gamely but had every chance to run the winner down and Fastnet Dragon was the first Tasmanian home in the race ahead of Up Cups who won the race in 2015.
The big disappointment was the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Dee I Cee which finished a distant last and his jockey Corey Brown had no explanation for the gelding’s poor showing.
The well-backed Eastender ($4) from the Barry Campbell stable finished eighth but only three lengths from the winner.