It’s very likely Ascot Park winner The Red Robber has run his last race for Gore trainer Tony Stratford.
“That will probably be it for him now. He’ll probably be retired. We’ll go home and sleep on the win. He’s done a good job but he is limited and I can’t see him going round and round for the hell of it. He’s honest, he tries and I wish I had a barn full of horses like that,” Stratford said.
Driver Blair Orange took the seven year old straight to the top and he hung on tenaciously to beat Ripsnorter by a neck.
Stratford says the Cleland Racing Syndicate which shares in the ownership of The Red Robber has a new recruit in the barn ready to replace the gelding. Beauty Barry is a four year old who’s had one start for Gavin Smith and has been moved south.
“He’s quite nice and I quite like him. We’ll look at lining him up at Winton.”
The Red Robber was made favourite in today’s race after running an unlucky sixth last week.
“He went really well last week and we were pretty confident with him drawing one today.”
The Panspacificflight gelding has now won three races and finished either second or third ten times.
Stratford has a good bunch of three year olds in the barn that have performed well over the winter.
“Sweet Lizzie will line up next week, Braeview Kelly is a couple of weeks away from kicking off again and Major Punter is still out. We’ll certainly head up the road with Braeview Kelly as she’s paid up for the Sires Stakes and the Sales Series.”
Stratford said Altimeter and Ideal Draw have been sold recently.
“They left this morning for Aussie. It’s a shame to lose those types of horses but it makes way for some young stuff.”
Meanwhile In Sequence trained by Amber Hoffman and driven by stable driver Mark Hurrell beat stablemate Kiwi Crusher by a head.
It was the six year old mare’s first start for the Hoffman barn having previously been trained by Ken Barron.
Fleetmaster a recent recruit to the Clark Barron stable, also won in the hands of Samantha Ottley. The Changeover gelding was previously trained by Mark Jones who brought the horse south and left him with Barron.
Bruce Stewart