Santa Brings GREEK HERO Owners a CLASS RECORD WIN at Doomben on Christmas Eve

27 Dec 22

Santa brought Dynamic Syndications Owners and our Newcastle based Trainer JASON DEAMER a terrific Christmas Gift on Saturday 24 December when our UK Import GREEK HERO won his 6th Race when claiming the NOVA 106.9 Benchmark 78 Handicap, 2000m, earning a first prize cheque of $42,700.

On a Good 4 surface, they ran the Time of 2:01.83 with a Last 600m in 35.27.

This smashed the previous CLASS RECORD which had stood at 2:03.97.

GREEK HERO carrying 60.0kgs on his back took a staggering 2.14 seconds off the previous Class Record.

In approximate calculations, with 7 lengths to a second, GREEK HERO lowered the CLASS RECORD by 15.1 lengths !!!

GREEK HERO (60.0kgs) ($3.30 Fav) defeated Namakwa (56.5kgs) ($7) by 0.94 length with Outback Gladiator (52.0kgs) ($7) 1.25 lengths behind the winner in third place.

As the gates flung back Ash Morgan had GREEK HERO step away nicely and roll up on the paint to settle behind eventual runner up Namakwa with third placed Outback Gladiator its outside as they ran past the 1800m mark, but at that stage three from out wide chose to spear across the face of the field setting up a fast clip as they ran past the winning post the first time and as a result, GREEK HERO had been shuffled back on the fence, settling in sixth spot and 6 lengths off the leaders as the field swung out of the home straight.

Running down the side heading for the back straight passing the 1400m marker, there was a bit of shuffling up front and now GREEK HERO was seventh, midfield the fence, tracking Outback Gladiator who had worked across to the fence, after Namakwa had moved up sit behind the leader.

It wasn’t all beer and skittles as passing the 1200m Ash had to check GREEK HERO as the tempo suddenly slackened up front and then again he had to check heavily as Outback Gladiator slowed to a walk after Namakwa put on the breaks up front causing a messy race back in the field.

As the field ran down the side and passing the 700m there were a few tactical changes going on up front and Ash was a wake up to what was going on. To avoid getting hung up behind a wall of tired horses, Ash angled GREEK HERO off the fence to be sitting 4 wide tracking Namakwa as the field swung into the home straight.

GREEK HERO gave up ground to find clear running and was a length and a half behind Namakwa whilst Outback Gladiator had hugged the fence around the turn and got a gap saving him 3 lengths to be up eyeballing the leaders.

As the balanced for the run home, GREEK HERO was in fifth place 4 lengths off the leader.

It’s here he started to extend and now in his rhythm he began to chase hard.

With 200m to run, GREEK HERO had passed Namakwa and Outback Gladiator and had massive weight pulls but class prevailed and over the final 80m GREEK HERO was pulling away stride by stride.

The racecaller’s comments summed it up nicely: “GREEK HERO runs home down the outside, at the 150, running home strongly is GREEK HERO and GREEK HERO has got the lead near the line and GREEK HERO is too good! Great Ride! GREEK HERO has won!”

JOB DONE – Thanks to an excellent ride by Ash Morgan, and from the owners perspective it was the first time in several races that a jockey implemented instructions and the result was a high-quality win.

Straight after the field had pulled up, Sky Channel’s Michael Maxworthy said: “Well today’s the day for GREEK HERO ridden beautifully by Ash Morgan, at $3.30 and $1.60.

“Well he ended up in a nice position after they had gone about 200m GREEK HERO, courtesy of Gate 1, and then he kept getting shuffled back and I thought, ‘don’t tell me, he’s doing to find some backsides again,’ but he has ridden this horse perfect, I don’t know how many times Ash Morgan has ridden here, if in fact he has ridden here in the past, but he knew exactly what he was doing, he got off the rails at precisely the right time coming down the side of the course, hooked him out, gave him plenty of clear air, which he hasn’t seen for a while, and this is what he can do. So, he wins his first race over 2000m and Kiaarn (Dickens – Sky Channel co-host), he did it with plenty of authority towards the end.”

Kiaarn Dickens (Sky Channel) chimed-in with: “Yeah, he certainly did, and it was a fantastic ride which is just what this horse needed, a little bit of luck.”

“Adam Watt from Dynamic Syndications, that win was fantastic, we were just discussing how good a ride that was from Ash, and to get this horse to tick the 2000m box.”

Adam Watt replied: “Oh, we were never concerned about the 2000m, he’s run second at Randwick over 2400m. It was just about having a rider that executed the game plan really. And he’s had no luck up here, and a few miscommunications from the Queensland jocks, so we brought up our own guy, and he got the job done.”

Kiaarn added in, “He’s had a few impeded runs up here, that’s right. It was just a matter of getting the right run and a little bit of tempo and it all panned out nicely.”

Adam responded: “He’s just been luckless all prep, Jason Deamer does a terrific job for us to have the horse absolutely flying, he was luckless in the Taree Cup, he was luckless up here in an Open Handicap, he was luckless last week, but thankfully, a little bit of Christmas luck on our side this week, and Santa has delivered us a nice present.”

CONGRATULATIONS to the Loyal Team of DYNAMIC OWNERS that race GREEK HERO: Dynamic Syndications Racing, Mrs A T Woollett, Mr S R Freeman, Mr S B Troughton, Mr A Cranes, Mr G Tew, Mr L Seminara, Mr M Moullakis, Mr A D Vella, Mrs H Bolton, Mr D F R Yesberg, Ms J D McGuffie, Mr W J Noonan.

GREEK HERO advanced his record to 34 Starts: 6 Wins, 5 Seconds, 3 Thirds and $281,859

GREEK HERO was a UK Import who was purchased by Dynamic Syndications for 62,000 Guineas.

He arrived in Australia with a record of 8 Starts: 2 Wins, 1 Second, 1 Fourth & $21,944.

In Australia, GREEK HERO has had 26 Starts: 4 Wins, 4 Seconds, 3 Thirds & 7 Fourths, earning $251,995.

This was Dynamic Syndications 801st RACE WIN

It was also our 31st RACE WIN for this 2022-23 racing season.

It was our 12th METROPOLITAN WIN for the current season.

Onwards and Upwards !