Southern goals for millionaire Rudy
GOLD Coast racing’s newest millionaire Rudy will have a well-earned rest before heading to the Sydney and Melbourne spring carnivals.
Trainer Helen Page rarely gets too excited about a win but she was elated when her tough gelding went over the $1 million mark in prizemoney at Doomben on Saturday.
Rudy ($2.70) had to lump 59.5kg but was too strong at the finish to beat More Energy ($10) by a long neck in the Group 3 Tattersall’s Cup.
It was a just reward for Page and Rudy after the gelding had finished third in the Group 1 Doomben Cup and second in the Group 2 O’Shea Stakes.
“Rudy had no luck in both of those races and I am thrilled for the owners,” Page said.
“It is a Queensland win – he is by a Queensland sire, out of a Queensland mare, owned in Queensland and trained in Queensland. Rudy has been so consistent throughout his career in Brisbane and when we have gone to Sydney and Melbourne.”
Page said Rudy, who has won nine races and been placed 13 times in 49 starts, had paid the price for his consistency.
Despite having won only one race in the previous two years, the Red Dazzler sixyear-old was asked to carry 59.5kg, which was the fourthhighest weight carried to win Tatts Cup since 1945.
Owner-breeder Tom Clarke, who races Rudy in partnership with his brothers David and Don, missed the Cup because he was in Britain for the Royal Ascot carnival.
But he had long expressed the desire for Rudy to pass $1 million in prizemoney, which the gelding did with $18,000 to spare on Saturday.