Grand National champion Brungle Cry reinstated himself as Australia’s best young hurdler with a dashing win in Wednesday Galleywood Hurdle at Warrnambool.
In a race in which the cheering only just defeated the jeering of protesters, Brungle Cry ($2 fav) relished the soft ground that he missed when beaten at Sandown at his previous run.
The five-year-old, who trainer Robert Smerdon believes is the type of horse who can save jumps racing in Australia, took control of the 3200m race at the second last flight of hurdles 600m from home, scoring by eight lengths from Beer Garden ($5).
Brungle Cry is now in line for a $300,000 bonus for winning any three of six nominated races. In his case he would need to add the Australian Hurdle and the Grand National Hurdle to Wednesday’s race to collect.
“He’ll go to all the features,” Smerdon said.
“I suppose he’s going to get a bit of weight in the Grand National but there’s a bit of money in it.”
Brungle Cry gave Smerdon his second successive Galleywood win, following on from Black And Bent who will contest Thursday’s Warrnambool Cup.
For winning rider Steve Pateman, the five-year-old also provided a breakthrough win at this year’s Warrnambool carnival and set him up for success in Thursday’s Grand Annual Steeplechase in which he rides the favourite and defending champion Awakening Dream.
Pateman, clearly Australia’s premier cross-country jockey, rates Brungle Cry as “one of the best couple” of jumpers he has ridden.
“From the time I sat on him in a trial he gave me that special feel – strength, desire and a real liking for the business,” Pateman said.
The outsider Zaman fell in the Galleywood but was uninjured, and second favourite Xaar Best lost rider Gavin Bedggood at the second last.
While most of the Warrnambool legends centre on jumps racing, flat sprinter Second Effort staked a claim for a piece of May carnival folklore with his second consecutive Wangoom Handicap (1200m) win.
The victory in the race known as the “Newmarket of the bush” was Second Effort’s fourth in a row at Warrnambool after also having won his maiden at the track in 2010 and a rating 72 race in 2011.
