SPECIAL REWARD SCORES ANOTHER UPSET
SPECIAL Reward has caused an upset for the second time in a Listed race in Sydney this summer with another powerful performance in the Carrington Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
Two runs back he upset Southern Lad as a $26 hope in the Razor Sharp, and at $9.50 on Saturday was a little more supported but he was not expected to win like he did again.
His trainer Kris Lees was asked if he thought his horse would win two
Stakes races this preparation. “Well, we didn’t lose faith because he was working so well at home, so it’s not a huge surprise,” Lees said.
“It’s been two Stakes wins and an unlucky one in between because he was unlucky the other night at Canterbury.”
Before his Razor Sharp win, Special Reward hadn’t won since taking out the Group 3 Newcastle Newmarket in March 2020.
“He had a bit of a lull for 12 months but he’s found his form again and was carrying a big weight against some handy horses,” Lees said. “He came through The Hunter, which is a lot stronger than what he’s been racing against now.
“He’s a really good-looking horse. I said going into the race that he’s starting to show the consistency that he was showing early in his career.”
And his past two wins haven’t been lucky ones.
He’s really powered through the line under Glyn Schofield, who has had three rides on him now for two victories because he gets his timing right on the six-year-old.
He sat midfield and didn’t come off the back of horses until the 300m.
By the 200m he looked the winner and hit the front with 50m to go, and won pretty softly by a length from Through The Cracks.
“He looked like he was going to be in the finish a long way from home and Glyn rides him really well,” Lees said. “You can’t expose him too early.
“If you didn’t know him and exposed him at the top of the straight he could be found wanting at the end.”
Special Reward was bred in Western Australia.