All roads lead to Group 1 Toorak Handicap for Antino
Tony Gollan and Antino (-285.71) have put the disaster of the failure at Flemington behind them to take out the Group 3 Sandown Stakes, with new rider Blake Shinn giving the heavily backed favourite a lovely ride.
The choice to go to Sandown and race against a field that was not near the quality of a typical Group 3 field during the middle of spring, turned out to be the perfect way to get the son of Redwood’s confident back.
The second and third favourites, Here To Shock (+290) and Golden Path (+850) set up a hot tempo out in front and as they rounded the home turn, it looked as though they had a good margin on the favourite.
However, once Shinn pushed the button and asked for the ultimate effort at the 300m mark, he showed his quality and went straight past Here To Shock, whilst Superium (+8000) finished over the top of Golden Path to claim third place.
Antino’s trainer Tony Gollan, spoke post-race about the win of his stable star.
“He was given a beautiful run,” Gollan said.
“He always begins a bit tardy out of the gates, but he can muster in the good spot and Blake (Shinn) got him in the right position.
“He rounded them up and he was tradesman like today, without being brilliant yet.
“You’ll see him better again in 13 days.
“If you watched him over the winter, his best win was in the Wayne Wilson which is over a mile and that’s what you will see when he gets to the Toorak (Handicap) in a couple of weeks.”
Blake Shinn had his first ride on Antino in the Sandown Stakes, and he spoke his first impressions post-race.
“Look, nice horse, record suggests that,” Shinn said of Antino.
“It was important to get him into clear air and give him clear galloping room to see what he’s got, and he delivered the good really well.
“He was gonna win really easy at the 300 (metres), but he might have got lost in the open air and that’s why he took so long to get to them.
“In a better race, potentially a Toorak, he will be very competitive.
“He’s a very good horse.”
Antino is now the second favourite at (+300) in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap futures market with online bookmakers.