Polytrack specialist Valevole proved that horses should not always be pigeon-holed when he finally recorded his first win over turf on Sunday.
With all his eight wins having been registered on the alternative track, and only 11 of his previous 41 starts run over turf with one second as his best showing, punters had legitimate reasons not to warm to his chances ($61) in the $100,000 Open Benchmark 89 race over 1200m on Polytrack.
But given a patient ride by trainer Brian Dean’s apprentice jockey Zawari Razali, the Brazilian-bred son of Our Emblem came from last with a rattling run on the outside to upstage the better-fancied pair of Flak Jacket ($14) and Ghost ($13).
Flak Jacket (Matthew Kellady) looked to have the race all sewn up when he was still holding all his rivals at bay at the 200m and showing no signs of buckling after trying to make all. Favourite Ghost (Alan Munro), another horse partial to the All-Weather, was not quickening as well as he does on Polytrack, but Valevole, on the other hand, was sprouting wings on the outside.
Well ridden by Zawari, the Fred Crabbia-owned gelding finished the best to score by three parts of a length from Flak Jacket with Ghost third another 1 ¾ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 10.17secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
Previously handled by Crabbia’s erstwhile exclusive trainer at Kranji, Patrick Shaw, Valevole was recording his second success for Dean, five months after he also combined with Zawari to get off to a flyer on New Year’s Day.
Dean said Valevole was a horse who had always shown his fair share of ability and just needed a bit of luck on turf – and from the heavens.
“He’s a lovely horse and Zawari rode him very patiently. It was the perfect race for him with only nine horses,” said the Australian trainer who was at a race-to-race double having earlier won with Exciting Prospect.
“His last few runs have been enormous. He probably would have been at half his price if he had been on Polytrack.
“In saying this, I think the early rain we had during the day made the difference. He probably enjoyed the sting out of the ground.”
With that ninth win, Valevole has been a handy moneyspinner for Crabbia, having now brought his total earnings past the $600,000 mark for the prominent South African owner.
