Cup success continues Sargent’s stellar season
John Sargent’s memorable season continued with Fromelles’ Gr III Rotorua Cup win on Saturday. Aidan Rodley reports.
Saturday’s Rotorua Cup win to improved staying mare Fromelles could just be the forerunner to a successful winter for Matamata trainer John Sargent.
Sargent was in Brisbane on Saturday, supervising part of a strong contingent there for the Queensland winter carnival, but he made sure he was in front of a television to watch Fromelles run out a comfortable 2¼-length winner of the Gr III Rotorua Cup (2200m).
“She’s been knocking at the door and it was perfect for her yesterday with the lightweight. That was her race,” Sargent said last night.
“She’s gone ahead in leaps and bounds in the last couple of months. She’d run a good race for fourth in the Hawke’s Bay Cup last time and before that she was a shade unlucky in the Manawatu Breeders’ Stakes at Palmerston North.
“She’s really grown a leg in the past few weeks and she’d worked really well last Tuesday, so we thought she was going to be a good chance.”
Ridden by Lisa Allpress, Fromelles settled one-out and one-back in fourth early but was shuffled back through the field as rivals made mid-race moves three wide to get closer to the pace.
However, once clear on the turn, the Savabeel five-year-old mare dashed home down the centre of the track to defeat Sum Up, who claimed second, a long neck ahead of Arcenciel. Desert Lad and Intransigent were the next two home.
It was Fromelles’ fifth win – her first at Group level – from 30 starts and took her earnings past $106,000.
Allpress said she’d been impressed by Fromelles’ previous two runs and had gone into the race confident she was a winning chance.
“She got a nice drag into the race but on the bend I just had to wait for a run in front of me. I’ve got a nice split and she’s done the rest,” Allpress said.
Sargent said Saturday’s slow track was as wet as Fromelles wanted, though he would leave her in work in case the tracks improved for a race like the $40,000 Cornwall Handicap (2200m) at Ellerslie on June 2. “She’ll be stronger next year too and she’ll be a nice staying type of horse for the Waikato Cup and Counties Cup,” Sargent said.
Sum Up was luckless in second, working hard five wide early before slotting in one-off, though he was then held up for a run from the 600m to the 300m. Once clear, he flashed home late.
Favourite Indikator was eighth, with rider Reese Jones saying his mount had failed to handle the testing track conditions.
Sargent was back home in Matamata yesterday, having returned from Brisbane where he watched Largo Da Barra run home stoutly for a narrow second in a Benchmark Rating 80 race at the Gold Coast and Choice Bro finish fourth in the Listed Hampden Stakes (1200m) at Doomben.
“Largo Da Barra was a certainty beaten. He was three wide all the way and just got beaten. He was flying home,” Sargent said.
“Choice Bro was a nice run. He just came to the end of it. He’d had a spell after his win in the Manawatu Sires’ [Produce Stakes] and he’ll be better for his next run and then be spot on for the Gr I [TJ Smith].”
The Shaune Ritchie-trained Saturn Rock was third in the Hampden Stakes, while fellow Cambridge galloper Six O’clock News finished last in the Chairman’s Handicap (2000m).
Sargent, who produced Keep Winning and Cathay Lady for wins at the Gold Coast last Thursday, will have others running at Doomben on Saturday, with Quintessential continuing her buildup to the Gr I Queensland Oaks in the Gr III A$175,000 Doomben Roses (2020m) and Shanghai Bund contestin the Gr III A$125,000 Fred Best Classic (1350m).
Keep Winning will head to the Gr III A$150,000 Grand Prix Stakes (2200m) at Doomben on May 26, a race that could yet attract Largo Da Barra, while Sargent said Dollario, who ran second at his last start, was likely to be restricted to 1600m racing.
Sargent said Kasumi would head home to Matamata after she finished fifth in Saturday’s Listed Laelia Stake (1600m) in Adelaide.
Meanwhile, Sargent confirmed he had applied for stables boxes at Warwick Farm as he looked to establis an Australian satellite stable for next season.
Sargent, who holds a 20-win lead on the New Zealand trainers’ premiership said he would consider Hawkesbury as a backup option should he be declined stable boxes at Warwick Farm.
He said he was setting up a Sydney stable to retain several Chinese-owned gallopers whose connections wanted to chase the superior prize money there.
“I thought that rather than losing horses to Australia to be trained, I ma as well do them myself over there,” he said.
“It will start out as a smaller stable but I’ll look at building it up. A lot of the horses running in Brisbane at the moment will go there and a horse like Magic Shaft will probably go there as well.
“I’ll still have my main base in New Zealand though. It’s so much cheaper t get them up and running here and this is where my main support base is.”