Smokin’ Romans causes upset in Turnbull Stakes
Ethan Brown’s amazing Spring has continued as he piloted Smokin’ Romans to a Turnbull Stakes win and boil over in the Group 1 feature race of the day.
There was no big secret as to who was going to lead the Turnbull, with Knights Order being in the race and he set a very good tempo for the Group 1 feature.
Ethan Brown had Smokin’ Romans just off the pace in the box seat and as they hit the home straight, the Ciaron Maher & David Eustace-trained gelding kicked away by over two lengths before Francesco Guardi stormed home but was never going to catch the eventual winner.
2022 Turnbull Stakes Replay
Ciaron Maher and David Eustace have now claimed yet another Group 1 victory in their training partnership, showing that they are the kings of the staying Group 1’s in Victoria.
“He’s just been a real product of the system, I suppose, late last prep we sent him down to the beach as he was always a very quirky horse, just to get him used to going on and off the float all the time.” Ciaron Maher explained when asked how he got Smokin’ Romans to win a Turnbull Stakes after winning a Pakenham Cup 10-months ago.
“This preparation you can see he is carrying a lot more condition he’s shown that he’s in good form the whole way and Ethan (Brown) when he jumped on him today said, he’ll run a race today. I said, I know.
“The horse is going great. I think he drops to 51 and a half for a Caulfield Cup which seems pretty nice.” Maher believes the Caulfield Cup will be Smokin’ Romans next race now, where Jamie Kah will take the ride due to the light weight.
Ethan Brown has now won two Group One’s this Spring, adding today’s Turnbull Stakes to his Memsie Stakes win in late August this year.
“That runs really brought him on. He’s just so easy this horse, he’s very tractable in the run. Gave me a lovely ride throughout and as I said, he’s taken a lot of improvement from last start and I thought he got overlooked today and he defied his odds.” Ethan Brown was always confident of a big run today after a winning last start at Caulfield.
“The feeling’s indescribable, it’s unreal and the backing of Ciaron (Maher) and Dave (Eustace) just makes it more special.”
Smokin’ Romans is now the $5 favourite in the Caulfield Cup markets with most online bookmakers.