Fuse Litt for huge upset in $2m Inglis
IN around 70 seconds, Richard Litt’s life changed forever.
This was the time it took his juvenile colt, Castelvecchio, to come from last and loop around the field to score a stunning win in the inaugural $2 million Inglis Millennium (1200m) at Warwick Farm on Saturday.
There was no fluke about this win, either. Litt’s youngster gave everything a start and ran them down, defeating twoyear-olds from the stables of Hall of Fame trainers Chris
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Waller (Accession) and Gai Waterhouse (Cairns-owned Dawn Passage) in the process.
Litt is only 29 and his win with Castelvecchio announced both trainer and horse as rising stars in Sydney racing.
“I’m speechless,’’ Litt said. “This is what we do it for, what we get up (early) for and this horse seems the real deal.
“He does everything so easily. We haven’t pushed him, he was not even revved up for this race, he only had two gallops going into today. They weren’t big gallops either so he is not even cherry ripe yet.
CODE: NR
“We were just happy to be here but winning a big race like this is just incredible.
“I might be able to go and buy a couple of horses at the sales tonight, maybe get some new owners.’’
Litt, who has 17 in work at Warwick Farm, has only been training for three years – he trained his first winner on this day with Klisstra in the Braidwood Cup soon after taking out his licence – but learned his trade off his father, Jim, and had stints working at the stables of the late Bart Cummings and John O’Shea.
But with Castelvecchio ($21) Litt has shown he deserves to be in racing’s big league as his colt maintained his unbeaten record when he powered past favourites Accession ($2.40 favourite) and Dawn Passage ($2.70) to win by two lengths.
When you give everything a start and a beating as Castelvecchio did it is hard to make any excuses for those that finished behind the winner.
Jockey Josh Parr’s ice-cool last-to-first ride was as much a piece of tactical genius as it was a result of the two-year-old’s inexperience.
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