Amexed breaks long drought at Ipswich
Premier trainer Tony Gollan quipped it must have been a day for long-term losers when his gelding Amexed scored his first win in over two years on Saturday.
Amexed ($13) had not won a race since the Group Three Rough Habit Plate in May 2014 – a mere 769 days – when he hugged the fence to win the $100,000 Stayers Series Final (2150m) at Ipswich.
In the previous race Londehero won his first race in more than 800 days.
Asked why Amexed had taken so long to win again, Gollan could only shrug his shoulders.
“Where do I start? There isn’t just one thing but rather 10 – sore feet, hitting himself, etc, etc. It must be a day for long-term losers to finally win,” Gollan said.
“But this is a quality horse but I was starting to despair about him. I entered him for the Ipswich Cup today but it was a bit soon for that.”
Gollan is now tossing up between heading north to the Townsville Cup or going to Grafton for the Cup there on July 14.
“He would be well up to both races but we will see how he pulls up,” Gollan said.
The win took Gollan to 78.5 winners for the metropolitan season and he needs just one more to pass his record of 79 wins.
Both the Matt Dunn-trained Londehero and Amexed were ridden by veteran jockey Robbie Fradd who Gollan joked would be his new stable jockey.
Fradd went against the bias of the day when he went up along the fence.
“The horse was travelling but everyone else was going out wide so I just went along the fence,” Fradd said.
Amexed held on to win by a half head to All Clear ($7) who looked certain to win 50m out.