Cannyescent impresses in gutsy Randwick win

CannyescentCANNYESCENT has given Gabrielle Englebrecht a realistic reason to believe her horse has a shot at winning the Randwick Guineas.

Despite a difficult run, the $1.90 favourite proved too strong in the Benchmark 71 Scweppes at the Randwick Australia Day meeting on Tuesday.

“He is a really, really good horse,” Englebrecht said.

“We thought he had it, but he had to do it really tough. We are really happy.”

The well-bred son of Canny Lad was trapped behind a wall of horses, but jockey Tye Angland found room on the inside.

Cannyescent, a gelding, beat home Bermuda Blu by a half length with Fabry further back in third.

The three-year-old showed plenty of pluck, with a heavy bias towards the outside clearly on show throughout the Australia Day meeting. Angland was left with no option, other than to go for the rail, after Cannyescent found itself stuck for a run.

“The run didn’t go entirely to plan,” Englebrecht explained.

“Tye had him in a beautiful spot, but they all trapped him in and nobody was giving him an inch, which is understandable with a short-priced favourite.

“Once he got clear, he just kept finding more pace – that’s the way he’s always ran, doing his best work late.”

The win was Tye Angland’s first on board the gelding. He replaced Kathy O’Hara last November and wasted no time in justifying the decision.

Cannyescent will now look towards the Eskimo Prince Stakes over 1200m at Rosehill on February 6.

Englebrecht was upbeat about the long-term future ahead of her winner.

“We think he can run a lot further and that race certainly suggested as much to me,” she said.

“We’re really confident of a mile – I’m certain that he’ll love a mile. He probably could even run beyond that, but until we get a few more starts under his belt, we won’t know for sure.”

“He hasn’t finished developing yet as an athlete. Long-term I’d like to think there’s some great weight-for-age races out there for him like the Cox Plate and the Doncaster Mile.

“I don’t want to dream too big, too soon, but you have to have a goal to work towards.”

The win is a huge one for Englebrecht, who confirmed earlier in the week that Sona Bloodstock would be entrusting her with its latest buy, a full sister to exciting colt Werther.

Sona Bloodstock paid $300,000 for the Tavistock filly from Bagalollies at the New Zealand Yearling Sales at Karaka earlier this week.

The Sona-Englebrecht combination will be on show again on Saturday when Aghna tackles the Group 3 Widden Stakes over 1100 metres at Rosehill.

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