Cruz's high-priced star finally in credit

Patience pays off as Floral Dynamite takes out feature event

Championship-leading trainer Tony Cruz provided the one-two punch in the January Cup at Happy Valley last night as former high-priced International Sale griffin Floral Dynamite all but squared accounts at last.

Floral Dynamite (Felix Coetzee) was the top-priced lot of the 2001 International Sale at $4.8 million and finally pushed his track earnings past that mark when he defied a difficult trip and the attentions of long-odds stablemate Lucky Good Day to hold a nose margin in last night's feature.

The first prize of $912,000 pushed Floral Dynamite past $5.1 million in stakes as his 1,800-metre win became the second leg of a double for Cruz and Coetzee, who also combined to win with Supersonic, and stretched the trainer's championship break over John Size to 10 wins.

But neither trainer nor jockey held much hope for Floral Dynamite as the field thundered past the winning post the first time and the stallion was posted three wide on the outside of the leading horses.

'Naturally I was concerned about drawing barrier 12 in the race and I wasn't happy when he was so wide going out of the straight,' Cruz said. Coetzee was thinking the same on top of Floral Dynamite.

'It was not going to be pretty early. But the irony was that when my stablemate Lucky Good Day got squeezed out at the start, there was one less horse in the contest for the early lead, so I was one horse closer and finally able to get across when the speed slacked up a bit,' the jockey said. 'I burned some petrol to get there but at least once we were outside the leader, he did get a rest mid-race which left him with just enough to hold on.'