A friendship formed with the view of plundering the spring riches of the Melbourne carnival is set to pay the ultimate reward for owner Geoff Evans and trainer Danny O'Brien at Flemington tomorrow, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.It says: Evans, who is part of a family operation known as Distinct Racing Syndicate, will have the O'Brien-trained Rockferry lining up in the $1.5 million AAMI Victoria Derby and success would be the stepping stone to even greater things next year, with his eyes firm
A friendship formed with the view of plundering the spring riches of the Melbourne carnival is set to pay the ultimate reward for owner Geoff Evans and trainer Danny O'Brien at Flemington tomorrow, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
It says: Evans, who is part of a family operation known as Distinct Racing Syndicate, will have the O'Brien-trained Rockferry lining up in the $1.5 million AAMI Victoria Derby and success would be the stepping stone to even greater things next year, with his eyes firmly set on a Melbourne Cup triumph.
Distinct Racing Syndicate is based in Western Australia and in 2004 they raced talented mare Free At Last with trainer Alan Mathews.
A start in a Melbourne Cup was on the horizon but the VRC committee exercised its discretionary powers to instead let in Another Warrior, which ended up running 16th.
The following year Free At Last ran second behind Confectioner in the Craiglee Stakes but the mare failed to get a run in the Turnbull Stakes, then missed a place in the Cranbourne Cup, meaning another shot at the Melbourne Cup was over.
''The Turnbull was such a strong race that year so we couldn't get into it and that came a year after we were balloted out of the Melbourne Cup,'' Evans said yesterday. ''It wasn't ideal but that's the way things go. There are no hard feelings. We'll get another chance some day.''
Evans is hoping Rockferry can be that horse, and the high-priced yearling buy which is a brother to Xcellent, a Melbourne Cup placegetter in 2005 behind three-time winner Makybe Diva, will line up as one of the favourites in the Victoria Derby.