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The in-form Bjorn Baker-trained galloper Cantonese made it five wins from seven starts since switching stables with a dominant win in the Ascend Sales Trophies Benchmark 88 Handicap at Rosehill on Saturday.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Cantonese was trained by John O'Shea until September and had put together a decent record though was more bridesmaid than bride - that is until Baker took over and the son of Redoute's Choice as been red hot since.
Ridden by his now regular rider, Jenny Duggan, Cantonese jumped well from an inside draw before settling in second behind race leader L'Esprit.
Berry had L'Esprit roll in the middle stages and that probably put enough pace in the race to allow Duggan to settle Cantonese and it was then that the race was probably over.
Cantonese has a strong turn of foot and after keeping plenty in reserve for the run to the line Duggan asked for her charges best effort as the field past the 300m and Cantonese kicked strongly.
Moriarty made a late challenge down the outside by Cantonese ran the 2000m out strongly to the line to score by a length and a quarter with a further two and a quarter to Iggy Pop in third. The overall time was 2.01.97 with the last 600m run in 34.63.
"He is going super,” Baker said. “I have been in New Zealand all week so I only saw him this morning, so the team have done a good job, I can't thank them enough, he looks in super order and I couldn't be happier with him.
“Once again, Joe has done a fantastic with the horse, he hasn't been straight forward and he can do a lot wrong but he seems to be holding his form, he is happy and is going super.
“He has far exceeded my wildest expectations so I will just see how he comes through this and we will go from there.”
“He was beautiful today,” Duggan said. “We were planning to lead but it was good than Nathan did lead because we just fell asleep and that is what we have been wanting him to do all along obviously but today he just outstayed them.
“This horse shows that even when he over races he has a good turn of foot so today when he relaxed it sort of summed it up pretty quick.”