The patience of father and son co-trainers Lee and Shannon Hope and long-time stable client Ken Beck paid off when lightly-raced four-year-old Folding Gear ran away with Saturday’s Group Three Easter Cup at Caulfield.
The Johar gelding had already shown a liking for Caulfield where he won the Group Two Autumn Classic (1800m) at his only other appearance there in February last year.
“He certainly is a promising stayer. We picked this race out for him from the start and it finally paid off,” Shannon Hope said.
“He’s always indicated he’s wanted the 2000 metres.”
Ridden by Ben Melham, Folding Gear ($4.80 fav), having only his 10th start, settled tenth of the 15 runners and made a long run before drawing away to score by two lengths from Viking Hero ($14), who came from last on the home turn.
Topweight Shewan ($9) did a good job under 60kg to finish a short neck away third.
Lee Hope purchased Folding Gear at a two-year-old breeze up sale in New Zealand and the gelding has won three races with three other placings and has now earned more than $250,000.
Shannon Hope was noncommittal about where Folding Gear could race next.
“We’ll see how he pulls up and then we’ll go from there,” he said.
Apart from winning the Autumn Classic as a three-year-old, he also ran third in the Group Two Alister Clark Stakes (2040m) at Moonee Valley.
“He did that on his own,” Hope said.
“He has just taken a long time, it was not by design, he just wasn’t there but we were fortunate that we had a patient owner.
“Sometimes you have a lot of owners in a horse and they get impatient but this horse has got one owner.”
Melham, who also won the Autumn Classic on Folding Gear, was quite impressed with him.
“There is a bit of class about him and he was impressive,” he said.
“He’ll run a mile-and-a-half (2400m) for sure.”
