A late phone call proved the highlight of Thursday’s races at Seymour when the Matthew Ellerton/Simon Zahra-trained Into Rio got up to win the $35000 G & S O’Sullivan Builders BM64 over 1418m.
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The horse had accepted for the seventh race on the card despite being given the top weight of 61kg.
But apprentice jockey Thomas Stockdale had his thinking cap on and when he was offered the ride he completed a double for the stable — and his own double to boot.
After the starter let them go, Into Rio settled well back in the early stages, but around the 550m mark he started working his way through — but mostly around — the field.
However Into Rio and Stockdale had saved their best for last and once Into Rio got wound up to warp speed he could be seen hammering on the outside track.
But it was in the straight the horse showed its true class, starting a withering run from near the back of the field to run down every other horse, and pulling up long before everyone had crossed the line, making the win even bigger.
Stockdale said it was a good result for the stable.
‘‘I was going through the fields last night and realised Simon (Zahra) and Matty (Ellerton) didn’t have a rider on so I gave them a call and was lucky enough to be given the ride,’’ Stockdale said.
He said he got to watch it all unfold in front of him while keeping his horse out of the way.
‘‘The horse jumps a little tardy but I was happy to find our feet early and get a nice cushy run throughout,’’ Stockdale added.
The track had been downgraded earlier in the meeting and Stockdale was one of the first to win from down the middle to the outside of the home straight.
‘‘The outside is better than the inside, which is chopping up a little bit, but in saying that, I did have that cushy run throughout and was on the better horse, but yes, the middle to the outside is that tad better,’’ he said.
With back-to-back winners in the bag, Zahra agreed it had been a good day.
He thanked the connections for their patience and added that at its previous start Into Rio covered a lot of ground but just didn’t have that ‘‘killer’’ in him.
‘‘I said to the owners we will give him three weeks out and just concentrate on the sprints this time in and he has held his condition a lot longer and he looks a lot better and you can see what he can do,’’ Zahra said.
‘‘You could also see this fella also has had a real turn of foot.
‘‘We’ll give him one more run then bring him back for the summer.’’
In race six, the $35000 Seymour Toyota Handicap over 2027m, La Volt, a horse Zahra admitted had given them a few issues, lived up to his potential.
Zahra said in the end they gave the horse nearly 12 months off in the paddock.
He said it had ‘‘obviously’’ taken a couple of runs to get him fit and ‘‘we have put the blinkers on and it has seemed to work after he over-raced a bit the other day; that’s why we were happy to bring him back to 1400m’’.
‘‘He got left out in front a long way from home but he got the job done,’’ Zahra.
‘‘He has always shown us a lot and he was probably a bit stiff in town in his last campaign.
‘‘While it’s good to get a couple of wins up and now with a better rating we can probably look at heading back into town,’’ he said.
The first leg of Stockdale’s double stretched back to the fifth of the day with Phil Stokes saddling the 9/1 chance Good Idea, given 62.5kg to carry over the long haul on only its second start this prep.
Stockdale positioned himself with a lot of cover while the highly fancied favourite Bill the Bee, who had led all the way, simply gave up the ghost the minute the chasers drew level.
Stockdale left his charge to the last and stormed to victory for his first win of the day.
Footnote
Stockdale left for France on Tuesday, where he has been selected to ride in the Longines Prix Future Racing Stars race, which will be held on Sunday.
In part he is going as a reward for his year-long recovery from a broken leg — he was only back in the saddle on race day in April.
The 20-year-old will ride against apprentices from across the world.
