Stellarcraft stuns at Doomben to break the drought
A LUCKLESS run of form for David Murphy-trained six-year-old Stellarcraft has ended at Doomben on Saturday after the gelding pounced late to take out the Canadian Club benchmark 75.
The win was the horse’s first victory since June of 2016, which also ended a run of two successive second place defeats by less than a length.
The short-priced favourite Misery looked to have produced a winning break at the 200m but the gelding kept surging to the line and eventually got the nod on the line to win and return +1560 at CrownBet.com.au.
Siliqua finished the race off nicely but did not make an impression on the leaders to finish third and deliver +300 via Sportsbet.com.au.
Murphy told HorseBetting.com.au that he never lost faith that a win was around the corner.
“He went really good today,” Murphy said.
“He’s been a bit luckless lately, he hasn’t had the best run of it over the last two runs.”
It looked like it was going to be another hard-luck story for the gelding after Misery skipped away in the latter stages of the race, but Murphy was confident heading into the straight his horse could nail the favourite on the line.
“I knew the favourite had a bit of weight and had a bit of pressure from the outside and we had a bit of a soft run.
“He can be a tough sort of bloke to ride, but Robbie gave him an absolute treat, he was really strong over the last 400m … and it’s all credit to Robbie Fradd, who had ridden the horse three-years ago.
“He actually knew more about the horse than me. He settled him in the run and gave him just a great run.”
The trainer said persistent rain in the sunshine state undid his runner at the first time of asking, then on the coast the horse just refused to settle in the run.
“It was two seconds in a row. I thought he could win at Ipswitch, but it poured down rain and the track went to a heavy 10.
“He doesn’t mind a soft track but the heavy was just too much for him. Then at the Gold Coast he wanted to get his head about, but he still went okay.”
Despite the lack of composure in the run, Murphy said Stellarcraft was in good shape post-race, which lead the trainer to running the horse just a week later.
“He pulled up really well after that one so we decided to run him around today,” he said.
“I thought he was always a good chance today.”