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After favourite and topweight Bionic Boy was upstaged by
lightweight galloper Dittatore in the Open Benchmark 89 race earlier,
trainer Steven Burridge was served a little bit of poetic justice when
Benji¡¯s Glory was the beneficiary of such weight pull two races later.
With no back on his weight (51.5kg), the Untouchable
four-year-old, who had only one solitary win on 1000m to show for, led from
barrier-to-box despite facing a steep rise in distance to the 1700m of
Sunday¡¯s Open Benchmark 69 race.
After securing the lead coming off the straight from the first
corner, Benji¡¯s Glory ($27) with Joao Moreira up dictated a steady pace
ahead of last-start winner Tobias (Ronnie Stewart) and
Bay
Of Island (Vlad Duric).
Benji's Glory leads throughout to give Joao Moreira his
fourth winner for the
afternoon.
The order changed little until the home turn when Benji¡¯s Glory
came under siege from Tobias and Bay Of Island while Shaw¡¯s well-tried duo
of Finstock Road, who was bidding for a three-in-a-row with Saimee Jumaat
filling in for the suspended Sean Cormack, and Volpista (Barend Vorster)
were also revving up.
But once Moreira got down into his low crouching position,
Benji¡¯s Glory immediately put two lengths on the chasing pack, weakening
late allowing longshot Alvito (Steven Li) to close the winning margin to
only half-a-length on the line.
Bay Of Island tried hard but never really came to terms with
the winner throughout the whole stretch of the home straight, settling for
third another three parts of a length away.
¡°He¡¯s always been a very consistent horse. We¡¯ve put a bit more
distance on him and with the light weight of 51.5kg, we thought he¡¯d be a
chance,¡± said Burridge.
¡°Just now, Dittatore beat Bionic Boy with a small weight. It
was our turn this time.
¡°I¡¯ve been stepping him up in distance and he¡¯s been doing very
well without winning. But today he was able to put it together.¡±
Benji¡¯s Glory is a four-year-old gelding by Danehill sire
Untouchable out of the Romeo mare Lover Punt. His record of two wins and
seven placings has already earned his connections, the Benjamin Racing No 2
Stable, the tidy sum of $135,000.
The win gave Moreira the fourth leg of a magnificent four-timer, his third
for the season, to bring his score to 82 winners, which represents an almost
unassailable lead of 29 winners over second-placed Duric.
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