Dry track key to Grand Piano at Rosehill
Leading jockey Nash Rawiller has kept a perfect record on Grand Piano, a winner at Rosehill.
Nash Rawiller has maintained his 100 per cent strike rate on the progressive Grand Piano, taking their partnership to three from three.
Trained by John Thompson, Grand Piano is by Japanese stallion Lord Kanaloa who serves several mares to southern hemisphere time each season.
Grand Piano came to Saturday’s benchmark 78-race over 1500m at Rosehill off a fourth in the Group Three Carbine Club Stakes against his fellow three-year-olds run on a heavy track with Rachel King aboard.
Sent out the $4 favourite, Grand Piano finished strongly to overhaul Rapido Chaparro ($18) and win by half a length.
“He just got posted a little bit wide from the draw (10) but Nash didn’t panic, he just let him travel and luckily enough he was too good in the run home,” Thompson said.
“He is a good horse. He is a horse that will go through his grades.
“On the wet track the other day he didn’t show his turn of foot. Back on the dry today we saw the right horse.”
Rawiller has no doubt Grand Piano is a stakes winner in the making.
“Obviously he was up in class last time a little bit but he is a horse that certainly in the future will be up to that sort of class,” he said.
“He’s just been beautifully placed at the moment, going through his grades. He’s not a big horse but he’s a tough little bugger.”
Rawiller returned to Sydney’s riding ranks in July last year after a lengthy disqualification in Hong Kong.
He is now challenging James McDonald for the premiership with Thompson one of his main supporters.
The pair combined with Dreamforce in last month’s Group One George Ryder Stakes,