Increased prizemoney and a $40,000 bonus gave trainer Bede Murray reason to smile about World Wide’s win at Rosehill on Saturday.
It wasn’t the case a couple of months ago when the five-year-old suffered an injury in training at Kembla Grange, interrupting his campaign.
“He had what we call golf ball foot,” Murray said.
The technical term is actually stone bruise but for Murray and his fellow trainers at the south coast track, the driving range in the middle of the track has been a persistent problem.
“We have succeeded in getting it removed,” he said.
“There are golf balls all over the place.”
World Wide’s win came on the day Saturday prizemoney was increased to $85,000 per race, with $48,750 for winning.
“He is a very honest horse and the money’s good too,” Murray said.
“With the BOBS bonus double-up, that’s another $40,000 so it’s been worthwhile.”
Ridden by Blake Spriggs, World Wide ($7.50) beat favourite Euryale ($2.50) by three-quarters of a length to win the Nova 969 Benchmark 90 (1800m).
World Wide is by Universal Prince who Murray trained to win the 2001 Australian Derby.
