The scream of “You bloody beauty” echoed around the saddling yard when Estadio Mestalla posted the most thrilling of victories at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday February 3rd.
The joy, excitement and thrill of winning at Rosehill on a Saturday was there for all to see, with the promise of more to come from the horse the Pride stable simply calls ‘Emilio’.
BARGAIN BUY
The commentators on 7 Racing and Sky Racing all told the remarkable story of Estadio Mestalla.
Purchased for only $65,000 by the NSW Tycoons on the Inglis digital sale in late November, the decision was quickly made to send the horse to Joe Pride with Joe taking 50% of the horse for himself and his clients.
At his first start, he was beaten a neck at Rosehill, then finished a gallant second at Royal Randwick before winning at Rosehill.
In just three starts, Estadio has virtually doubled his purchase price, winning a total of $118,000.
“He still has a couple of levels of improvement in him” Trainer Joe Pride
JOE ON THE 7-DAY BACK-UP
Your trainer Joe Pride is a genius backing horses up in the space of 7 days – it’s a real knack.
“I don’t normally back my horses up off a peak performance, but I do like doing it when they haven’t had a tough run and I reckon that was the case with Emilio last Saturday at Randwick.
Look I leave these decisions right till race morning so if he wasn’t right I just would have scratched him,” Pride said.
The wild celebrations in the mounting yard certainly meant Joe made the right call on the 7-day back-up.
“I’m sure everyone enjoyed that, and I reckon the horse still has a couple of levels of improvement left in him.
We will probably give him a break soon enough, we will let him tell us.
There is a Mile race coming up on Saturday week (Feb 17) at Randwick we will look at.
But if he shows me any sign that he’s had enough, I will tip him out, and we will have a very nice horse in the late Winter where, with his European background, the softer tracks should suit him better”. Joe said.
“We will have a very nice horse in the late winter” Trainer Joe Pride
BIG DANCE POSSIBILITY
It’s always hard NOT to get ahead of yourself, but the $3 Million Big Dance at Royal Randwick on Melbourne Cup is a possible aim for Estadio Mestalla.
There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge and he’d have to qualify by winning or coming second in a Country Cup, but he’s probably up to that.
The South Grafton Cup on July 14 or the Coffs Harbour Cup on August 2 are possible races Emilio could target with the aim of qualifying for The Big Dance.
Again, it’s early days, but let’s dare to dream, after all it’s what Racing is all about.
NSW TYCOONS IN BOX SEAT FOR MONTHLY $10,000
It’s only early days and there’s nothing worse in racing than “Going the early crow” but the wins of Estadio Mestalla and Sidenay have certainly put the NSW Tycoons in the box seat to win the $10,000 in cash that is up for grabs for topping the Monthly TRL Ladder, and the Blues are rapidly closing the gap to Season leaders the QLD Rogues for the $50,000 grand prize that one owner will win!! It’s only going to get more exciting.
Go You Good Thing!
Images Courtesy of Bradley Photos