SUTTON Grange-trained iron horse Red Alto has upstaged a throng of Melbourne Cup hopefuls to win the Group 3 Jayco Bendigo Cup.
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Trained by Brent Stanley, the six-year-old gelding proved too resilient for a quality field, to salute at the long-odds of $71.
A euphoric Stanley rushed from the members’ lawn, where he watched the race, into the mounting yard to greet the stayer and his rider Michael Walker, after his tenacious stayer became the longest-priced Bendigo Cup winner since Napier Street in 1997.
Red Alto was able to hold English import Dal Harraiuld ($5.50) at bay in the final stages to win by half-a-neck, with Sir Charles Road ($12) a long-head away in third.
Lord Fandango was fourth, with the favourite Furrion ($2.70), from the powerful Darren Weir stable, fifth.
Dal Harraild, Lord Fandango and Sir Charles Road were all attempting to win their way into the field for next Tuesday’s Group 1 Melbourne Cup with a win at Bendigo.
But all honours belonged to the winner and his trainer, the former Caulfield Cup-winning jockey, whose base at Sutton Grange is just half an hour away from the Bendigo Jockey Club racecourse.
Stanley was full of admiration for his durable galloper, who was having his 15th start of this preparation.
“He’s a tough horse and he had a great run in the race, but when the gap came for him, to be able to split through and put himself there, I knew he could pull through,” he said.
“It’s very exciting to keep the cup at home (in Bendigo).
“He’s been training great and racing sensational, so we were real happy with him beforehand, but this was a serious race today.
“But he’s competed against these (calibre of) horses before and kept himself well in stead.
“He had to aim up another level today and that he did.”
Stanley praised the ride of Walker, who finished Cup day with a winning-double, both of them for Stanley following the earlier win of emerging mare As It Lies.
“I was quietly confident if everything could go right – he drew a sticky barrier – that was my main concern,” he said.
“But Michael Walker gave him a great ride and at the end of the day that’s the difference between winning and losing.
“He had a really good run and coming to the turn he was the only horse travelling on the bit, so it was a matter of when he was going to get out.
“Michael’s done a lot of riding for me – when I was jockey we were close mates and rode together around the world.
He had a really good run and coming to the turn he was the only horse travelling on the bit, so it was a matter of when he was going to get out.
- Brent Stanley
“When he came here (to Australia from New Zealand) I supported him when I started training and now we have a great strike rate together and a good affiliation.”
Red Alto, who finished fourth in the 2015 Victoria Derby, has made habit of playing the spoiler in his races.
He made headlines in early-August by winning a 2400m benchmark 88 handicap in Randwick in which he was the only runner in the nine-horse field not to be trained by Chris Waller.
Despite a follow up third at Randwick, the gelding could manage no better than seventh at Caulfield and fifth in both the Benalla and Hamilton Cups leading into Bendigo.
Stanley said the horse had got his tongue over the bit at his last start at Hamilton, but had a tongue tie applied for Wednesday’ s race to allow him to breathe easier.
After his first stakes level win, Stanley said Red Alto had likely earned a ‘well-deserved’ break.
“The only real race we’d try to win after this is a Melbourne Cup, but we are not kidding ourselves,” he said.
“We’ve just won a Group 3, with big money, so he’ll go out for a well-deserved rest and maybe win a few more (cups) next prep.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be able to win your local Cup.”