Dragon’s on fire in Sandown
Kiwi stayer Dragon Storm came from last to land the Listed Sandown Cup (3200m) at Caulfield yesterday under a Blaike McDougall ride.
The son of Shocking had won last season’s Group 3 New Zealand Cup for Chris Gibbs and transferred to Mike Moroney’s Flemington stable after an unplaced effort in the Group 3 Wellington Cup (3200m).
The 7-year-old gelding’s three runs leading into yesterday’s triumph had been less than inspiring, with Moroney resorting to training the stayer over hurdles in the lead-up to the A$160,000 contest.
In a slowly run affair, Dragon Storm got cover and was rated well by McDougall, coming widest to get the better of the favourite True Marvel on the line.
Dragon Storm has won six of his 29 starts and more than $300,000 in prizemoney.
“I nearly left my run a bit too late. I did have every intention to follow True Marvel and make a sustained run from the half-mile,” McDougall said. “I changed my mind and decided to ride a bit of a race on him and we got there on the line.”
The galloper is raced by a New Zealand syndicate of local Chinese owners, headed by Alan Fu, who went to $150,000 to secure Dragon Storm as a 2-year-old at the NZB Ready To Run Sale from the draft of Mana Park.
● Seven-year-old mare Polly Grey landed her fourth stakes race when successful in the Listed ATC Cup (2000m) at Rosehill in Sydney, lumping a clear topweight of 59kg on the heavy track.
The daughter of Azamour has a liking for rainaffected ground and handled the rise in distance from 1400m fresh-up to 2000m with aplomb, scoring a comfortable win under expat Kiwi riding ace James McDonald.
Prepared by fellow Kiwi Chris Waller for her New Zealand owners, the champion trainer joked that a pep-talk from a star stablemate may have worked the oracle in seeing Polly Grey return to the winner’s circle.
“We just put her next to Verry Elleegant for one night, that was all,” Waller quipped. “She's a decent horse and obviously she is superior on these types of tracks and this distance as well. She is pretty fit. She had a trial between the 1400 metre race and [yesterday]. The trial is a fill-in race, a bit less stress, but they're still doing the work, so I think that's a big help.”