Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Brilliant seven-year-old Diego warmed up for the $300,000 Retravision Fremantle Cup next Friday night in dashing style with a splendid victory in the $100,000 J. P. Stratton Cup at Gloucester Park on Friday night, and his driver Maddison Brown declared that the New Zealand-bred pacer was spot on for the 2536m feature event.
Diego gave his rivals little chance when the gifted Brown rated him perfectly in front on his way to his win over stablemate Gambit and Mighty Ronaldo, rating 1.54.6 over the 2130m.
This was Diego’s third highly impressive all-the-way victory from his past four starts, and Brown was quick to stress that the gelding was not purely a frontrunner and certainly did not have to set the pace to have a chance of winning the Fremantle Cup.
“He is versatile, and he showed that two starts before tonight’s win when he worked in the breeze and fought on to finish third behind Magnificent Storm in the 1730m Village Kid Sprint,” said Brown. Diego has also won several races when coming from behind.
“He felt strong tonight and he was tugging a little bit,” said Brown. “The lead time (35.4sec.) was fairly solid, and when Magnificent Storm wasn’t there (in the breeze) straight away, I thought I’d try to get away with a little bit. Mighty Conqueror put a bit of pressure on early, but that wasn’t an issue.”
Diego, the $2.10 favourite from the No. 1 barrier, ran the opening 400m section of the final mile in a leisurely 31.5sec. before Brown increased the tempo with quarters of 28.4sec., 27.9sec. and 28.5sec. Gambit ($7.50) trailed Diego throughout and ran home strongly to finish 2m from the winner.
Mighty Ronaldo ($31) finished solidly from sixth at the bell to be a length away in third place, and he was followed home by Jumpingjackmac ($16) and Patronus Star ($34), with those two runners impressing with stout-hearted finishing bursts.
“Initially, a lot of Diego’s early runs were when he raced sit-kick when he didn’t have good barriers,” said Brown. “It’s only of late when he has drawn barrier one at his past two starts that we have had the opportunity to lead with him.” Diego also started from the No. 1 barrier when he led and won over 1730m on July 29 and over 2130m on September 2.
Magnificent Storm, the pre-post favourite for the Fremantle Cup, was the $4.60 second fancy on Friday night when he started from the outside of the front line (barrier nine) and was restrained back to last soon after the start. He began a three-wide forward thrust 1200m from home to move to the breeze before wilting in the final stages to finish eighth.
This was the 73RD running of the Stratton Cupo and Brown created history by becoming the first female to drive the winner of the race. And Diego gave master trainer Gary Hall Snr his sixth success in the Stratton Cup.
Stuart McDonald, who drove the Hall-trained Gambit in Friday night’s Cup, said that the seven-year-old was poised for a strong effort in the Fremantle Cup. “He was on the speed all the way and hit the line really well,” he said. “But he couldn’t catch Diego, who is flying. Gambit didn’t race last week, so I expect he will go better next week after tonight’s run.”
Deni Roberts was also enthusiastic about Patronus Star’s performance, saying: “It was a perfect run before the Fremantle Cup. He warmed up really sharp, felt good in the run and finished off as good as he could when it was mathematically impossible to beat Diego, with the times he was running out in front. I couldn’t have asked any more from him, and we will be going into the Cup with confidence.”