Down Under Boy will try to make it back-to-back wins on Saturday after his shock first-up victory in the final race of the Melbourne Cup carnival.
The win at Flemington last Saturday week at 60-1 stung most punters but was no surprise to co-trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon who set the seven-year-old for a first-up tilt at the 1400m event.
Ridden by Nick Hall, Down Under Boy swept home from well back at the 800m to upset Stirling Grove and Amaethon.
“It was a race we worked towards to try and get him there and it was good to see it all come together,” Symons said.
Symons and Laxon have Down Under Boy engaged in Saturday’s 1600m handicap at Moonee Valley as the next step to winning a stakes race for part-owner and breeder Eric Buttler.
“He’s a real good war horse now. He’s in at the right time over that Christmas and New Year period and it would be nice to get some black type for the owners,” Symons said.
“Eric has all the mares in that family and even though Down Under Boy has won around $460,000 in stake money he still hasn’t won a stakes race.
“He’s been Group and Listed placed seven times so it would be nice to get a black type win somewhere along the way.”
As a two-year-old the gelding was first past the post in the Group Three SA Sires’ Produce Stakes but was relegated to second on protest.
At three he was runner-up in the Group Three Norman Robinson Stakes and fourth in the Group Two Vase before running eighth in the 2007 Group One Victoria Derby.
Down Under Boy, who has won six and been placed in another 17 of his 56 starts, ran third in the 2009 Group Three Eclipse Stakes and was placed in the Listed Victoria Cup in 2009 and 2011.
Light Vision, Jungle Ruler, Wind Shear, Its Prince, La Rocket, War Ends and Tears I Cry are also among the 22 entries for Saturday’s Moonee Valley race.
