Kiwis feel the force as Nash and Gai cash up
In the last year Nash Rawiller and John Thompson have become Sydney racing’s dynamic duo. They strike at 33 per cent and now they have a Group 1 after Dreamforce took the $1.2m George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill yesterday.
Rawiller was at his best controlling the tempo and was able to keep enough in the Dreamforce tank for to warded off a late thrust from Kiwi hopes The Bostonian, with hot favourite Te Akau Shark a moderate third for rider Opie Bosson.
It was 17th win for Rawiller and Thompson together this season and the trainer played a big part in building his jockey back up to his best.
Dreamforce struggles to get a strong mile, but the Rosehill 1500m prove a perfect match for him. Rawiller got away with a steady tempo early and then was able to make it into a sprint home, running his last 600m in 34.07 seconds.
‘‘I put the pedal to the metal well before straightening. I was sitting well out on the track but then cut the corner then continued out without knowing what happened behind me,’’ Rawiller said. ‘‘I was hoping to throw them into disarray.’’ It took those back in the field out of the race, with only The Bostonian late as a challenger and he got within a head. Te Akau Shark was trapped wide and simply could make up the ground.
■ Trainer Richard Litt is keeping an ambitious Australian DerbyQueen Elizabeth Stakes double on the table after Castelvecchio won the $700,000 Rosehill Guineas.
2019 Melbourne Cup-winning rider Craig Williams had Castelvecchio trailing the leaders before wheeling into clear air, staving off Prince
Fawaz by half-a-length. Kiwi hopes Sherwood Forest (seventh), The Holy One (11th) and Scorpz (last) failed to fire.
■ Gai Waterhouse likes to tell the story about the last words her famous trainer-father Tommy Smith said to her.
‘‘You make a man sick,’’ Waterhouse recalled. ‘‘You can’t train two-year-olds. I keep doing my money on them.’’
Twenty-two years on and finally Waterhouse proved she might be just as good as the family patriarch (six GS wins), notching Golden Slipper winner seven yesterday with Farnan.
Hugh Bowman blasted Farnan out of the gates and never gave anything else a chance.
It was Bowman’s first $4m Slipper winner. ‘‘This is the best field we can assemble of twoyear-olds and he donkey licked them,’’ said Waterhouse.
Sydney Morning-Herald