Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Toughness is the chief ingredient in the make-up of six-year-old mare Three Rumours, who raced three wide for the first 750m and then worked in the breeze before grinding her way to victory in the $27,000 Westside Auto Wholesale Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“She’s tough and made me work hard,” said Emily Suvaljko, who was driving the Nathan Turvey-trained Three Rumours for the first time.
Three Rumours was the $1.70 favourite, but $19 chance Stormyskyes, trained and driven by Shane Steele, made an unexpected bold bid for victory by setting a solid pace with final quarters of 29sec., 28.7sec. and 29.6sec.
Three Rumours clawed her way to the front in the final 20m and won by a half-length from Stormyskyes, with Paroquet ($12) and Little Darling ($11) finishing strongly to be third and fourth, respectively.
“I wasn’t too worried about working out wide for the first lap,” said Suvaljko. “I’d got up there (to the breeze) at our own pace. She was pretty cruisy getting up there, and then she got quite lazy in the breeze.
“I had to pull the plugs with 800m to go because I was a bit concerned that I wasn’t going to catch the leader. Three Rumours travelled up real good down the back, and then on the corner (home bend) the leader kicked away. But the swoopers late in the straight helped us to get to the line. Even in the preliminary tonight every time a horse came to the outside of her, she took off.”
Three Rumours has earned $245,450 from 12 wins, 20 seconds and three thirds.
“She has been in work for quite some time, and we race her fortnightly and don’t do a lot between her runs,” said Turvey. “She will soon have a freshen up before being prepared for the big feature races for mares towards the end of the year.
“She hasn’t got the X factor like three or four of the mares. But she is versatile and can come from behind.”