Four-year-old sprinter 'is limited, but honest'
For a horse who had just won his second race from five local starts, Mr Ginger wasn't getting much of a boost from either trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing or jockey Zac Purton. The gelding clung on to a short head margin over Ultimate Winners after looking to have had a perfect run, but Purton outlined the difficulties the four-year-old gives his jockey. "He doesn't break the gates well, and you have to urge him to get running, then he overdoes it. Then when horses come around him he changes legs and rolls around everywhere," Purton said. "On the plus side, he is very honest and he was in for the fight." Shum said the gelding's in-race antics had been a surprise, as Mr Ginger doesn't do any of that in training.
Schutz finds the dirt to his new recruit's liking
The Andreas Schutz-trained Racing Hero looks headed for a steady diet of all-weather racing after landing his first victory on the surface. Parked in the box seat by Zac Purton, Racing Hero got every favour and it was enough to see him home over 1,800m, and finally lived up to what he had shown working on the same surface. "He works like a better horse than his form indicates and his early runs for me were below expectations. He has taken time to settle in - it might be only a kilometre from the main stable block to the Olympic stables but it can still take a while to settle into new surroundings," he said. "And he likes some cut in the ground, which is why we put him on the dirt, but he only has the one gear, no turn of foot."
Ultimate and Time Winner among those to scope 'dirty'
Vets had their hands full, with two bleeders and a heart irregularity along with two favourites who were beaten and scoped poorly afterwards. Class Five sprinter Dashing Ace got the double whammy in race one, pulling up at the 150m mark after suffering a bleeding attack as well as a heart irregularity. Elegant Frames bled in the sixth, but other well-fancied runners to finish with bleeding difficulties included Ultimate Winners and Time Winner. Time Winner finished tenth in race two and scoped with substantial blood in his windpipe and Ultimate Winners returned to a similar diagnosis although only a photo separated him from victory a race later. Suisse D'Or was another to scope "dirty" in the fourth race.
