El Soldado shows class
WET track or dry track, it doesn’t matter to veteran stayer El Soldado.
The tough 10-year-old son of Colombia hadn’t won since he caused a massive upset at $125 in the Auckland Cup in March on a firm track.
He was ridden to perfection by Darryl Bradley that day, but the ride of Samantha Collett in yesterday’s $100,000 Avondale Cup was perfection-plus.
Jumping from gate eight on a slow track, she let the Phillip Devcich-trained and co-owned galloper freewheel to the lead.
Collett allowed him to find his rhythm and he relaxed beautifully which allowed him to produce a fighting finish to hold out Megablast with Mister Impatience third and Five To Midnight fourth.
Punters had ignored him once again and he was $101 on the final field and $69 on the tote.
‘‘That was an amazing effort,’’ Devcich said. ‘‘He’s just kept on going – that’s how he runs.
‘‘He’s improved a lot in the last couple of weeks and it’s on to the Auckland Cup again.
‘‘I want to give him one more run beforehand which will either be at Matamata next Saturday or in the Nathans.’’
The Kaimai Stakes (2000m) is the race at Matamata and the Nathans Memorial (2200m) is run on March 4 at Ellerslie with the Cup (3200m) a week later.
He’s at $21 in fixed odds markets for the race.
A wet track was made to order for upset winner Gingernuts in the $1 million Group (2100m).
Trouble is he hasn’t been entered for the 2400m classic on March 4.
‘‘Well, he’s not in,’’ said cotrainer Jamie Richards when asked about Derby prospects for the son of Iffraaj.
‘‘I guess we’ve got to have a good sit down with the owners and I think a late entry will be going in on Tuesday. ‘‘It was quite a serious win.’’ Serious indeed, particularly in light of the fact the gelding completely blew the start, giving all runners a five-length start.
Jockey Johnathan Parkes was as cool as a cucumber, letting the horse find his feet and taking all the short cuts on offer before dashing home along the inside to swamp NZ II Derby leadup, the Avondale Guineas his rivals.
Charles Road ran well for second as did third placed Mongolian Wolf and Redeem The Dream finishing fourth after making the pace.
Four of the last five Derby winners have won the Avondale Guineas.
Earlier on the programme, Tavidream beat another highly regarded 3-year-old Sacred Way home in the Rating 65 over 1500m to give retired master trainer Jim Gibbs and his wife Anne a milestone win.
It was their 100th success as owners since Gibbs retired from training nine years ago and they have become involved in racing a number of thoroughbreds and standardbreds.
Tavidream is trained by Gibbs’ son Chris and Donna Logan as are two of the best he has shares in, Volkstok’n’barrell and Hasselhoof.
Former Gibbs’ apprentice Cameron Lammas rode the winner to perfection for his former boss.
Australian-bound Eleonora lost no admirers despite being narrowly beaten by the Peter and DawnWilliams trained Grovano in the Open 1500.
The rain persuaded the Williams stable to run the winner over a distance short of his best.
‘‘He’s really done a good job this season,’’ Peter Williams said.
He was using yesterday’s race to get ready for the upcoming Nathans Handicap which could lead to a Hawke’s Bay Cup attempt.
Meanwhile, Eleonora is on her way to Sydney for a campaign that could culminate in an AJC Oaks start for trainers Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman.