Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
New Zealand-bred six-year-old Diego is racing at the peak of his powers for champion trainer Gary Hall Snr, and driver Maddison Brown praised the gelding’s toughness after his narrow victory in the $30,000 Bill The Better Butcher Free-For-All at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Diego, the $2.70 second fancy, began speedily from the No. 2 barrier and easily held out the $2.25 favourite Lavra Joe, who went forward strongly from barrier four.
After a fast lead time of 35.9sec. Lavra Joe overraced in the breeze and the opening quarters of the final mile were particularly fast — 28.5sec. and 27.6sec.
After a 28.8sec. third 400m section Lavra Joe began to feel the pressure and dropped back to finish last in the field of eight, leaving Diego the task of withstanding a powerful late challenge from star four-year-old stablemate Jumpingjackmac, who enjoyed a perfect sit behind the pacemaker all the way.
Diego dug deep to beat Jumpingjackmac by a head, rating 1.53.5 over the 2130m journey when the final quarter was run in 29.4sec.
Brown admitted that she was worried about Diego’s winning prospects following the fast early pace. “I didn’t want to go that quickly,” she said. “Lavra Joe was hitting his wheels; he was pulling and dictating the speed.
“Diego is known as a very good sit-sprint horse, but he did a really good job to hold out Jumpingjackmac when he (Diego) had every right to run second. This showed how tough Diego is.”
Diego is by champion sire Bettors Delight and is the fourth and last foal out of Christian Cullen mare Sakura, who managed one third placing from her three starts. Diego, who had 17 starts in New Zealand for three wins and five placings, now has earned $273,359 from 17 wins and 18 placings from 67 starts.