Julius seizes opportunity
THE owners of well-bred three-year-old Julius have been patiently waiting for the son of Time for War to make it to the races and in Devonport yesterday the gelding repaid them with an emphatic maiden win on debut.
Julius was sensationally backed in from $6 to start the $2.10 favourite on the back of an impressive trial win.
The Leanne Gaffneytrained gelding never let his owners down by delivering a bold frontrunning display to score comfortably from Reward Achiever ($4.80) and Society Bill ($12).
He missed the start, but jockey Ismail Toker urged him to take a forward spot and so quickly did he accelerate he found the front with
Society Bill (Kyle Maskiell) content to sit outside of the leader. When Toker asked for an effort Julius responded and went on to score by more than two lengths. Gaffney said the gelding had been a “handful”, but is slowly coming to terms with racing.
“I’m glad this fellow was gelded because he would have been quite a handful as a colt,” Gaffney said.
“He still has plenty of attitude but that’s working in his favour these days. He has a lot of natural ability and when he is more seasoned, I expect he will be very good.”
Julius races in the Star Thoroughbred colours and was purchased by Star’s managing director Denise Martin, who paid $77,500 for the horse at the 2019 Tasmanian Magic Millions Yearling sale.
Among Julius’s band of owners is Queenstown businessman Phil Evans, who has been involved as an owner of many horses bought by Star.
“I’ve been on the journey with Star for many years but that’s understandable given the first horse I raced with Denise was Theseo and he won multiple Group 1 races and he took me on an incredible ride,” Evans said. “Julius has been a bit of a work in progress, but he seems to be getting it all together so we might have a bit of fun with him. It’s not always about winning, it’s just the thrill and joy of being a part of it [racing].” RED FIORE has been a frustrating horse for punters, but the gelding finally delivered for Whitemore trainer Graeme McCulloch yesterday.
With Brendon McCoull aboard, the four-year-old gelded son of Fiorente showed great courage to fight back after being headed in the home straight to score narrowly from Pompeia ($7), with Bogan Bill ($9) a closeup third.
Red Fiore had contested some feature three-year-old races but he couldn’t quite live up to expectations.
“It’s just nice to get a maiden win, but he’s by Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente so I’m still confident he will do much better when he gets over the longer trips,” McCulloch said.
Red Fiore was well backed starting the $2.90 favourite after as much as $16 was offered by one corporate bookmaker.