Outsider Cavallo upstaged his more illustrious rivals with a stunning late charge to score a victory in the $125,000 RDA Cup over 1200m on Sunday.
Priced at $118 and ninth favourite among the 12 runners, the New Zealand-bred gelding held off El Milagro (Danny Beasley) by half a length for the surprise win in a time of 1min 11.05sec with Davide (Barend Vorster) one and a quarter length away in third.
It was the four-year-old galloper’s sixth win from 17 starts and third victory for trainer Sam Chua after Cavallo was placed under his charge in August.
“We were quite lucky today,” he said. “I wasn’t confident at all about getting a win, especially against this quality field with so many good horses in this race.”
Besides El Milagro who won the Kranji Sprint and Davide who won the Woodlands Handicap, the race included other feature race winners like Flying Fulton (Shafiq Rizuan) and Trudeau (Corey Brown), winners of the Marsiling Classic Stakes and EW Barker Trophy respectively.
But reputation alone was not enough to defeat Cavallo (John Sundradas), who after electing to take the widest line, displayed his big heart as he made up the ground on his rivals and somehow found an extra gear down the straight to record an impressive and unlikely triumph.
Falling behind at the beginning did represent a risk especially as Cavallo was well adrift of the leading pack that included noted front runners El Milagro and Huka Falls (A’isisuhairi Kasim) and promising sprinter Pioneer Seven (Manoel Nunes), noted Chua.
“But he’s a horse that doesn’t like to be in the front,” he said. “So I told John take a chance and keep him at the back and try your luck once you get on the outside.”
The gamble paid off handsomely for jockey Sundradas, who collected his second victory aboard Cavallo and his 13th overall win for the season.
“It’s a very good win,” he said as he wiped the dirt from his face after weighing out. “Once we got to the top of the straight I just left him alone and he responded very well. I just needed to let him run out, which he did brilliantly.
“He was very unlucky in his last race (finishing third within a length of winner Rapido Star who was 11th in this race),” he said. “I expected him to win that one and I know he’s got a lot of speed in reserve.”
“Plus his record on this surface is very good,” he said, pointing to Cavallo’s four previous wins on the Polytrack.
The brown gelding, a son of Testa Rossa by Indovina, has collected a shade over $350,000 in stakes earning for the Beverly Hill Stable.
