Former UK galloper Glencadam Gold who is being aimed at the Caulfield Cup has kicked off his Australian campaign in good style with a hard fought win in the TAB Sportsbet Handicap (1550m) at Canterbury today.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Formerly trained by Sir Henry Cecil, the Gai Waterhouse-trained five-year-old trialled well twice leading into this and punters were willing to back the son of Refuse To Bend into the even money favourite.
With stable jockey Nash Rawiller on board, Glencadam Gold jumped well and sat outside the early leader Dollario for a majority of the race before going to the lead in the early part of the straight.
He was quickly joined by Brian's Honour who looked the winner with only 100m to go before Glencadam Gold fought back to win by a nose over Brian's Honour in second and Master Of Darkness in third.
“We might have seen a Caulfield Cup horse here today as he is nominated for it,” said Waterhouse.
“He did a few things wrong, he had his mouth open and he sweated-up behind the barriers and once the horse came up on the outside he got his head down and he was beaten 50m out and said thankyou boom.”
“There is plenty more to work with and as i always say small fish are sweet and its nice to start with a win here at Canterbury.”
Rawiller said the horse has a long way to go before he is considered a Caulfield Cup horse but took a step in the right direction today.
“He will take a lot of benefit from that today,” said Rawiller.
“He is a horse that has taken a few months to settle in to how we do things and just the last three weeks he has started to put it all together,”
“When Brian's Honour put the pressure on us he got completely off balance and out of stride but his last 100m was tremendous I thought.”
“It's a very long way to go to the Caulfield Cup but I must say this horse is heading in the right direction and I am sure if anyone can get him there it's and he keep rasing the bar as we go along.”
Glencadam Gold is currently $51 for the Caulfield Cup on Tab Sportsbet fixed odds with Green Moon the current $14 favourite.
