Ben Allen produce brilliant Valley ride as Brugal Reward wins
YOUNG jockey Ben Allen produced the ride of the night at Moonee Valley to steer Brugal Reward to victory in the Benchmark 70 at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
The Darren Weir-trained 3Y0 sat off the pace but when presented with an opening found great rhythm late to notch up a second victory from 12 starts.
“We were meant to be initially a bit closer but there was a nice speed early and I was able to get back and get a really nice run,” Allen said.
“We weren’t left with many options but this horse is good when you don’t get held up and she’s really got a good nice turn of foot and this track suited tonight and we were able to get in the gap.”
Brugal Reward ($5 with Crownbet.com.au) beat home the Hayes-Dabernig runner Clockwork Orange ($9.50), who produced a nice run under Damien Oliver, to make ground late, after sitting at the rear of the field for much of the run. Perfectly Safe ($5.50) finished further back in third.
Darren Murphy, the Weir stable representative on course, said it was sweet to put a run of bad luck behind Brugal Reward. In her previous three starts Brugal Reward finished third, fourth and fifth and could have won any one of those with luck in running.
“She’s been a model of consistency and racing very well without much luck,” he said.
“We were uncertain about the widish barrier again today and it was a really intelligent ride by Ben.
“The instructions where to push forward and get outside the leader to overcome the wide barrier but it was obvious after about 50m that she wasn’t going to get the speed to do so.
“Ben went to plan B straight away and got cover — we thought she would be hard to beat if she got luck.
“It was a really good ride by Ben and a good win for connections.”
Immediately after the race the jockey of Larapineta Michael Walker indicated for people to come and take his mount, before laying down on the ground. Medics were treating the jockey and it is unlcear what his ailment is at this point.