Quick back-up a key for Bodega Negra win
New tactics of backing up Bodega Negra within a week has delivered the gelding’s first win in 16 months.
Ridden a perfect race by Glen Colless Bodega Negra ($14) scored by a 1/2 length to Revitalise ($6.50) with a head to Teronado ($7) third at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Trainer Bruce Hill has always had an opinion of Bodega Negra but the six-year-old had let him down having not won since April last year and being unplaced at his past 14 starts.
But Hill never lost faith and believed Bodega Negra was on the right trail when he was a good sixth at Eagle Farm last week.
“He looked so well this week I decided he could go around again,” Hill said.
Hill also trains Teronado who ran his third minor placing in three starts at the new Eagle Farm.
Meanwhile, trainer Barry Lockwood had a few anxious moments before Hidden Pearl ($1.50) confirmed a Sydney trip by winning the Trent Halliday Memorial.
Hidden Pearl was surprisingly headed by Tibrogargan Miss and then jockey Bridget Grylls had to switch to the worse part of the track on the inside in the straight.