Congratulations to a
Loyal Team of Dynamic Owners for the
Maiden WIN of their horse
VANDANGLE (4yo g Vancouver x Danglissa Girl) after it broke through for a
morale boosting victory on Saturday.
Our
Will Freedman trained runner was facing the starter for the
fourth time in his career, having been
placed 2nd and 3rd at previous starts.
VANDANGLE won over 1400m in Race 5 the Tuncurry Forster Volunteers Maiden Handicap in a time of 1:24.45 with a last 600m in 35.51.
You’ll go a long way to see a ride as good as what jockey
BEN LOOKER produced to claim victory, when jumping from barrier 10 in a field of 13, and lumping
60.0kgs top weight, a minimum 2.0kgs more than any of his peers,
Ben steered a magical course to claim victory.
We were second up here after a luckless run the previous start, and running into Volterra, a $1.3million yearling and then being held up until the race was gone, after that rider failed to ride to instruction, and had our horse buried away with nowhere to go until the race was over.
A change of rider made a significant difference, and it still took a brave ride to win because of the big weight pull the peers had on our galloper.
VANDANGLE (60.0kgs) $3.80 favourite, defeated the Kris Lees trained OPALEYES (55.0kgs) by 0.49 length, with the Todd Howlett trained REALCOOLCAT (55.5kgs) 2.08 lengths third.
There were three key elements to this victory:
The training feat of Will Freedman to take a horse who has had more issues than any horse should, nurse and care for him back to full health, then show patience and guile to have him at a fitness level to perform at 80% of his displayed training ability, to be strong and fit enough to win second up at seven furlongs carrying a big weight from a wide draw.
Secondly, it’s the courage of connections to know that despite the bad draw, the big weight, and risk of lacking hard fitness, we still believed his class and ratings would have him a genuine winning opportunity.
Thirdly, a masterful ride by the top local hoop, who listened to our race tactics and had our horse placed to perfection, to give himself, VANDANGLE and his Owners a winning position.
The rest was up to VANDANGLE and he repaid the faith.
Whilst in the scheme of things it was only a
bush maiden, to our owners, whom have been faced with disappointment after disappointment with him, to get to this point and to win the way he did with the obstacles he has faced, is like winning the lottery.
VANDANGLE is with his third trainer, having started with Gai and Adrian, before an injury prevented him to make it to a trial. After an extended spell he was transferred to Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou who did a remarkable job to get him to the races, where he ran 3rd on debut before an issue at his next start when 5th saw him head back to the paddock.
Gerald advised that he could win races, but it would be kinder on the owners pocket and the horse to go to a country trainer who can give him a lot of TLC . We appreciated the honesty and it was a
“no brainer” to transfer
VANDANGLE to our Scone trainer
WILL FREEDMAN.
The horse has been working well and we thought he could win first up but racing is a sport and things just didn’t pan out as predicted they should on speed maps and tactics.
VANDANGLE bounced out of that run and presented better again here at Tuncurry and started favourite again despite all the disadvantages on paper.
We wanted to be positive, and we expected to lead or trail the leaders if they went too hard, and this is how things unfolded.
As the gates crashed back, VANDANGLE was quickly into stride but speed from two drawn inside, had VANDANGLE trapped 3-4 deep on speed. Here Ben took initiative and kept pushing for another 50m where the race unfolded beautifully as it appeared it should on our map.
Two leaders went hard to control the speed and Ben pushed up and then took hold a half-length, which allowed him to cross the face of the pack, to land third spot the fence, trailing a genuine tempo and our horse was able to relax and get into his own rhythm until the field swung into the straight.
As they balanced up, he had a pair of leaders in front and then the outside runner wobbled wide and, in a flash, Ben drove VANDANGLE through the gap and hit the lead at the furlong pole.
However, it’s at this point that the big weight and lack of match fitness started to take its toll as OPALEYES for Kris Lees, with a 5.0kg pull in the weights threw down a determined challenge.
Ben asked VANDANGLE for another effort and he responded but as BEN went for the whip, VANDANGLE started swishing his tail and running away from the whip in Ben’s right hand, and ducked out 3 horses over the final 100m.
However clever horsemanship was on display and Ben kept our horse rolling to the line, knowing he had held off OPALEYES who could do no better, maintaining his winning margin.
Vandangle winner 15.1.22 from Dynamic Syndications on Vimeo.
We congratulate our owners on obtaining a photo on the wall for such a gallant, hard fought and deserved win: Dynamic Syndications Racing, Mr G A Cosgrove, Ms L I Kennedy, C J R Racing (C N Deeb (Manager), L R Bellantonio, J Brooks), Mr L Szancer, Mr M J Hill, Dynamic No 111 (D W Watt (Manager), G B Ford, D Goodwin, P L Leeper) Almighty Racing Pty Ltd, Mr D J Ricketts, T P Racing (A Attieh (Manager), P Lakiss).
It’s a reward for your loyalty to VANDANGLE and your patience.
The way he was successful in this event, it appears he will be better when the trip gets out to a mile, and he can settle in the run and be given the opportunity to chase to the post. There certainly appears more wins will be obtained.
VANDANGLE produced Dynamic Syndications 263rd Individual Winner from 311 Individual Runners 84.6% whilst 304 (97.9%) have earned prizemoney.
This was Dynamic Syndications 19th Race Win for the season.
Onwards and Upwards!