Riva De Lago booked a trip to Brisbane for a winter carnival campaign after he returned to the winner’s circle in good style at Scone on Friday.
Riva De Lago came with a well-timed run to get the better of anther Queensland-bound galloper, Torio’s Quest, to take out the $120,000 Yarraman Park-Horsepower Open Handicap (1300m) by three-quarters of a length.
Triple Elegance was a neck away third with Riva De Lago’s time of 1:16.78 bettering Jerezana’s race record of 1:17.02.
The Con Karakatsanis-trained Riva De Lago showed his potential with two strong wins in Sydney last preparation but the gelding had gone winless in his four starts in good company during the autumn carnival.
Ridden by Brenton Avdulla, Riva De Lago settled back in the field with cover and tracked Torio’s Quest into the straight before peeling out to make his move.
He was able to overhaul the Brett Partelle-trained runner in the final 100 metres and is set to have his next start in the Group Three QTC Cup (1300m) at Eagle Farm in two weeks to try to force his way into the Stradbroke a week later.
“Everything went his way today and he ran super,” Avdulla said.
“He’s been racing without a lot of luck but Con has done a super job getting him here. We ended up in the perfect spot and he won well.”
Karakatsanis was in Brisbane but was delighted to see the promising four-year-old get back to winning form.
“It’s just good to see the horse racing well again. I’m sure he’ll be competitive when he gets to Queensland,” Karakatsanis said.
Hugh Bowman, rider of Torio’s Quest, felt his mount was going to be the winner when he hit the front but said last year’s Queensland Guineas winner just got a bit tired late on in his return from a let-up.
“I was happy with him,” Bowman said.
“I thought he was going to win but he just blew out a bit the last bit with 59 (kilograms) on his back over 1300 first-up. They’ve run a race record so it was a good effort.”
Torio’s Quest is also being aimed at the Stradbroke.
