Ilovevegas puts it together at Doomben with dominant win

Ben Currie
Ben Currie was pleased with the performance of Ilovevegas at Doomben.

BEN Currie says he is excited to see what Ilovevegas can do when he steps up over the mile in the near future after scoring a massive win in the opening event at Doomben over 1350m on Saturday.

The two-year-old colt was slow to leave the gates and settled at the tail of the field under the guidance of Matthew McGillivray. The apprentice jockey kept the youngster at the tail of the field into the straight, sticking to the fence and deciding to ride for luck in the run to the line.

At the 250m mark there were plenty of nervous moments, with Ilovevegas still trapped back in the ruck. With a split appearing 150m before the line, Ilovevegas pushed his way through to assume the lead, sprinting clear to defeat Rancho Montoya and Bold Endeavour.

It was the son of Ilovethiscity and Ruparani’s second win at his sixth start, having resumed from a spell at Toowoomba on June 16 with a 3.3 length victory over 1200m.

Currie said it was nice to see Ilovevegas starting to put it altogether on the track and relishing racing over more ground.

“He is a nice horse; we’ve had a really good opinion of him all along,” Currie said.

“We were really happy to get him to the 1350 here today, he is showing no speed early at all and I don’t know why – last preparation he was putting himself there but now he just wants to relax and get back and attack the line which is fine when he’s winning.

“He has got the job done today and he has really turned the corner this prep.”

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Currie said he knew his charge was a leading chance in the race, despite drifting out to $9.50 at the jump.

“We were very happy with the horse – I had him very soft first up and he still won so I knew he was going to come to the races today a lot fitter.

“When he got back like that and got held up I was a little bit worried but I knew he’d attack the line and it was a great ride at the end.”

Currie explained the plans are now to work Ilovevegas up in distance, with a bright future expected from the youngster.

“We are just trying to step him up now to get him over a bit more ground further down the track.

“He is a beauty and once we get him up in trip further he is only going to get better.

“He is doing everything right, he is relaxing really well and I’d really like to see what he can do when he gets to the mile.”

The day got off to a good start, with Currie and McGillivray combining to run second in the following race with Song One.

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