Stockdales combine for city win at Valley
Apprentice Brandon Stockdale has linked with a horse trained by his father and owned by his mother to notch a special win at Moonee Valley.
The Frankie Stockdale-trained three-year-old Unique Lovely ($5.50) finished strongly down the outside in Saturday’s Bidfood Handicap (1000m) to score by a length over Miss Vesper, with If Not Now When another neck away in third.
“I’m just rapt to ride a winner in town for my old man,” Stockdale said.
“It’s his first winner in town and mum owns this one so it’s really good.”
The 18-year-old apprentice said Unique Lovely was a talented filly and he was delighted to see her put it all together on Saturday, a week after breaking her maiden at Swan Hill in her fifth start.
“We’ve always had a high opinion of her … but we’ve been disappointed with her,” Stockdale said.
“She hasn’t gone to the races and produced what she’s shown at home. So it’s good to see her put another win on the board.”
Frankie Stockdale said the intention had initially been to sell Unique Lovely at a breeze up sale but that did not eventuate.
“She’s always shown plenty of ability,” the trainer said.
“She was actually a breeze up horse but she got crook so we didn’t get to sell her. So we’ve kept her and we knew she could gallop anyway. It’s worked out magnificent.”
Unique Lovely gave Brandon Stockdale the 13th city win of his apprenticeship to date and the 3kg claimer is hopeful this could be his winter to start shining in town.