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Trainer Brian Dean may still be back in Bendigo caught up in the New Year revelry, but the team at home was already hard at work, with their efforts rewarded.
Formerly prepared by trainer Patrick Shaw, the Brazilian-bred six-year-old by Our Emblem was at his seventh run for Dean, with a couple of placings as his best results to show for, but the come-from-behind win in the $100,000 Manoel Nunes Stakes could not have come as a better ringing endorsement of Dean’s new training regimen.
Settled worse than midfield by Dean’s apprentice jockey Zawari Razali in the Open Benchmark 83 race over 1200m, Valevole ($91), a seven-time winner who has not scored for 21 months, shaped up as the unlikely candidate to upstage the favourite Golden Brilliant (Troy See) at the 200m.
Trainer John O’Hara’s last-start winner had an ideal run in the box-seat behind Indicio (Michael Rodd), but just could not quicken even after the leader rolled off the fence at the top of the straight.
Longshot Lim’s Harvest put in a cheeky run in a bid to give young apprentice Firdhaus Rafi his first win, but it was Valevole who came spoiling their party to score by three parts of a length. Golden Brilliant had every chance but just did not seem to have the same burst hard up against the rails. The winning time was 1min 12.12 secs.
Former Kranji jockey Mark Gallagher, now Dean’s assistant-trainer, said Valevole owed much of his win to his good chemistry with Zawari.
“The kid’s riding well and he gets on well with this horse,” said the Irishman.
“Two starts back, they ran second and he was on his game today. He was also coming down in slightly easier company and I suppose that helped him too.”
Zawari said he knew the Fred Crabbia-owned galloper well enough for having sat on him at his last three outings and was expecting him to make his presence felt if he got the right breaks.
“I rode this horse twice before and I know he has a very strong finish. He was not so good last time but he was a lot better today,” said the Malaysian rookie.
“The instructions were to ride him back in the field and let him come home and it’s worked out well.”
Valevole has now registered eight wins from 35 starts for stakes earnings closing on the half-a-million mark for Crabbia.
