Uptown Lad descends late at Rosehill
KIM Waugh-trained gelding Uptown Lad made it two wins from as many starts after storming down the outside late to take out a benchmark 85 race at Rosehill.
Racing second-up after a smart win at Newcastle last-start, Brenton Avdulla waited patiently on the $10 outsider at Crownbet before unleashing it late to storm over the top of them and record a comfortable win.
Level Eight closed late in a muddling affair to take second and return $3.10 at William Hill while Powerline couldn’t match the leader, but fought hard to round out the placings and deliver $2.10 at Sporstbet.
The win was all about Uptown Lad though, which moved its record to four wins from 11 starts, and Waugh said in the aftermath of the race there were no guarantees that the gelding was going to take part.
“Isn’t it funny how things turn out,” Waugh said.
The trainer pointed to a run earlier in a year on a rain-impacted track as to why the horse may have been scratched.
“His last run, last preparation was on a Heavy 8 and he was very disappointing.
“We didn’t know whether it was the actual heavy track and or if he had enough. So I was on the phone to the owners the race before (asking them) ‘what do you want to do? What will we do?’ and thought, well let’s run him and if he goes no good today we know he doesn’t it.
“But he’s a swimmer.”
Waugh mused that the failure on the heavy track last time was more than likely due to the time in the preparation rather than an inability to handle the heavy conditions.
“He was always going out after that run, so he was obviously a bit flat because today he just thrived … I’ve always had a high opinion of him but just really immature and taking awhile to get it all together but just a pleasure to train.”
The win displayed a progressive-style of run from the horse, which could push forward and take more races out this preparation.
Despite the strong showing, Waugh said the horse will head to rural NSW before being prepped for a tilt at The Championships.
“He’ll probably have one more run,” the trainer said.
“There’s a class four at Wyong in a couple of weeks, $50,000 race, then he’ll go out and get him ready for the Provincial Championship race.”