Long overdue win in town for Chris Parry

Chris Parry can remember the days when the older trainers got a go in racing.

Nowadays it’s much tougher and he says it’s all about public relations.

“In this day and age it appears you’ve got have Twitter and all that sort of stuff,” Parry said.

“You’ve got to know how to talk to the owners.”

Now 61, and a veteran of 40 years training, Parry had his first city winner in more than four years when Ostinato scored a long shot win in the Le Pine Funerals Handicap at Sandown on Wednesday.

It was at the same track that Parry last had metropolitan success, courtesy of Charlottes Mint.

Parry now has just three horses in work and keeps training for the love of the horses.

Previously Parry had a strong team with his best galloper Northern Copy running second in a Doomben 10,000 during the 1980s while he had a more than handy sprinter in Noble Lancer who kept bumping into Schillaci.

A stint training in China was short-circuited when Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics.

“The chap who had Domeland tried to get racing going and it could have worked, but when Beijing got the Olympics, they didn’t want gambling happening,” Parry said.

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“It was a good gig. I enjoyed it and it was like stepping back in time to the old days.”

Ostinato, ridden by Katelyn Mallyon, started at $71 but paid almost $100 on the TAB, beating the $2.25 favourite Septamore by a long neck.

A former Darley galloper, Ostinato cost $28,000 at a dispersal sale and Parry said the gelding had more than paid his way, winning four of his 39 starts.

But Parry was forced to race the gelding out of his grade on Wednesday.

“His rating got so low that I couldn’t get a run in 58 grade races and that’s why I’m running here in a 64,” Parry said.

“He galloped last week and (former jockey) Mark Flaherty galloped another one for me and said that this horse will win in town.

“He’s a genius.”

But Parry was left ruing a late decision at the TAB window.

“I walked up to have a $5 exacta with him to beat Septamore, but I said nah, don’t be stupid, so I had the quinella instead,” Parry said.

The quinella returned $141.40, almost $200 less than his original thought.

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