Gold Salute made it back-to-back victories at Flemington with his win in heat three of the Winter Championship and trainer Mark Riley has his sights on the $200,000 final of the series at the same track on July 4.The Testa Rossa five-year-old, bred and raced by former long-time Melbourne Racing Club committeeman Kevin Heffernan, is racing in career-best form.The owner-trainer combination just missed a double when Gold In Dubai went down by a neck to Glam Slam in the feature of the day, the Liste
Gold Salute made it back-to-back victories at Flemington with his win in heat three of the Winter Championship and trainer Mark Riley has his sights on the $200,000 final of the series at the same track on July 4.
The Testa Rossa five-year-old, bred and raced by former long-time Melbourne Racing Club committeeman Kevin Heffernan, is racing in career-best form.
The owner-trainer combination just missed a double when Gold In Dubai went down by a neck to Glam Slam in the feature of the day, the Listed AR Creswick Stakes (1200m).
Gold Salute's successive 1400m Flemington wins have taken his record to six wins and five placings from 19 starts.
The reason the gelding is so lightly raced for his age is that he contracted EI (equine influenza) when Riley took him to Sydney for a campaign and took a long time to get over it.
"D Oliver won on him a couple of years ago at Sandown and had a good opinion but then the horse got EI but thems the breaks," the Mornington trainer said.
Ridden by Mark Pegus, Gold Salute ($5.50) was in the first four throughout and wore down the surprising race leader Playwright ($6.50) to score by a long neck from Benelli ($8) who beat Playwright by a nose for second.
"Mark clicks very well with him and the horse is going very well," Riley said.
"The Winter Championship has been his aim all the way through. I suppose we have to be careful what we do with him between now and the final so that he doesn't get too much weight in it."
The Listed final of the Winter Championship is run over 1600m, a distance Gold Salute hasn't won at but he did run second to Electromotive in the Sale Cup over the trip last October.
Meanwhile Mark Zahra, who resumed riding last month after fracturing his pelvis in a track fall at Flemington in January, showed he was well and truly back with a winning double.
He landed the promising two-year-old Kidnapped ($4.60 equal fav), prepared by Peter Snowden, an easy winner in the Bruce Gadsden Hcp (1400m), while Makeadreamcometrue ($1.90 fav) completed a hat-trick of wins in the AFL LIfe Members Association Hcp (1700m).
Makeadreamcometrue, owned by Nick Moraitis, has had four starts since being transferred from Danny O'Brien in mid-April for a second and wins at Sandown, Caulfield and now Flemington.
"He rode him pretty confidently," Robert Smerdon's stable foreman Henry Dwyer said.
Makeadreamcometrue, a Volksraad five-year-old, travelled well in the first three before scoring comfortably by 1-1/4 lengths from Pacino with topweight Roadworker the same margin away third.
"He'll probably go for a spell now down at the farm at Drysdale and have a swim every day," Dwyer said.
"I'd like to think he could pick up one of the lesser staying races over the spring. We'll have to wait and see what Robert and Mr Moraitis have in mind for him."