Idle Ollie gets the cash
Story By by Geoff Thomson
Thursday, 17 August 2006:  | | Damien Oliver |
That was Oliver’s only ride for the day and he timed his run to perfection with the Darren Weir-trained galloper getting home by a long head over the fast-finishing Packing Success with hot favourite Maldivian, battling on for third, three-quarters of a length away.
Oliver made an early morning trip to Geelong to ride Minson in trackwork, going from there to Torquay for a surf but had no luck there with conditions too rough.
He opted to play nine holes of golf at Torquay to fill in time before his lone riding engagement for the day.
The win by Beech Hurst was its fourth from 10 starts and Oliver was full of praise for his mount.
“I was ruing that I wasn’t more positive at the start as I was back further than I wanted,” Oliver said. “The instructions were to ride him quiet. I was caught a bit wide but had cover.
“It was a really good effort. He has put together a couple of nice wins.”
Support came late for Beech Hurst with the winner paying $8.80 on Super TAB.
Runner-up Packing Success was having only his second run this campaign for trainer Damien Williams and would have won in another couple of bounds.
Williams said before the race that he had been happy with the horse’s first-up run and felt he would be getting home hard.
“I just hope the pace is on so that he can find his feet and finish the race off hard,” Williams said.
There were few excuses for hot favourite Maldivian, the horse allowed to take a sit behind the pace by jockey Steven King and he bowled along under a good hold before easing out to make his run around the turn.
Maldivian quickly collared leader Princess Storm but no sooner had the lead than Beech Hurst and Packing Success surged past to fight out the finish.
It was only the second start for Maldivian and he was beaten by more seasoned performers.
The Mark Kavanagh-trained galloper is being touted as a future Group horse and will derive a lot of benefit from the run as he was racing against Class Three horses.
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