Ron Quinton won the time honoured Group 2 Villiers Stakes (1600m) three times as a jockey, and on Saturday he took out the 2011 renewal of the race with Monton, with his former apprentice Hugh Bowman in the saddle.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Monton was equal top-weight with King Lionheart at 58kg for the race, and to make matters more difficult he started from the outside barrier of 16 giving Bowman little choice but to travel wide for the entire trip in the $175,000 Inglis sponsored race.
The race was led by Erewhon through to the turn into the main straight when he was quickly joined by Miss Keepsake. Meanwhile, back in the field Bowman was swinging in the breeze and six wide at the 900m mark.
Bowman was unable to improve much on that positioning although he did get into being 'only' five wide passing the 600m. However, they went out again as the pace went on turning for the run home, and Bowman had no alternative but to go nine wide as they cornered.
To Monton's eternal credit he coped with this passage, under his big weight, and then showed his class to sustain a strong run to the line racing in the middle of the track.
Miss Keepsake, racing closer to the rail, had gone to a lead with at the 300m, but Monton stormed to level with 200m to run. Outside was Kontiki Park, and inside was fellow top-eight King Lionheart.
It was Monton though who was in control and Bowman sent the five-year-old to the line with 1 1/4L to spare. Kontiki Park was second with stablemate King Lionheart third, the margin a short head. Miss Keepsake was fourth.
The time was 1.36.33 on the Good 3 track, with the final 600m in 35.93. Monton had remained steady throughout betting paying $14.60 on the NSW tote and $13.70 on the Victorian tote with TAB Sportsbet, bettering the $13 on offer on Fixed Odds.
Heavily backed runner Lightinthenite, who finished fifth, had opened at $6.50 and was heavily backed into $5.50 on Friday before easing again to start joint favourite on Fixed Odds with Shadowfax, failed to place.
With Miss Keepsake running fourth it was a rough result all round, with the First 4 paying almost $64,000 on the Victorian tote and $57,500 in NSW. Fibrillation, $14 into $7, was also unplaced as was the well supported New Day Rising.
“It was a courageous win, he did it the hard way,” said Bowman with understatement,
“I thought I cannot win going back and I cannot win driving him forward, I just need a bit of luck. I did not get in so the horse did it the hard way and he was strong on the line.
“When you have a horse, and when they are in a nice rhythm, I would rather be wide than in, as you are not going to run into any trouble. The thing about him is that he can quicken up in the field, but I was not confident that he was going to do that at the 900m and I thought I was in trouble.
“But I did not panic, but when I did ask him to go he was able to get around the bend without being impeded, and when I balanced up I had four lengths to play with and he was strong on the line.
“It means a lot when you are working with the horses (and Quinton) and this is up there with my wins as Ronnie is a great friend and mentor. It is great that he has a good horse again,” he said.
Quinton was measured, but delighted with the win, and having Bowman riding as well.
“The horse has gone the right way. He remained calm and cool and he was good. He did not have a lot of luck in the running, but he overcame it,” he said.
“As I have said before Stephen Jefferies has done a lot of work with this horse and deserves a lot of the credit, plus my other staff, but I think he has turned the corner again.
“This was a good win as he (Bowman) was apprenticed to me and we have remained very close friends,” he said.
Quinton said that he would give Monton a short spell before a campaign for the 2012 Sydney Carnival with Monton now exempt from the ballot for the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap (1600m).
Monton, is out of the Marauding mare Dynamic Flyer and this was his sixth win from 20 starts. He came into the race off the back of a win in the listed Festival Stakes over 1500m with Quinton's current apprentice Sam Clipperton up.
Along with two third places he has earned stakes of $461,760 for owners P P K Kearney, H T Payne, D Lamond, G Bunt, T Andreacchio, E Dooner and T Dooner.
