Quatronic has pulled off the longest journey to win a Highway race, braving a nine-hour float trip to score at Rosehill.
Sent out the $2.60 favourite, Quatronic repaid punters’ faith thanks to a front-running ride by Hugh Bowman in Saturday’s Highway Handicap over 1200m.
It gave the champion jockey, who hails from Dunedoo in central western NSW, his first win in a Highway race for country-trained horses.
Trainer Matt Dunn’s wife and stable representative Keira said Quatronic made the long journey from Murwillumbah on the NSW-Queensland border on Wednesday.
“Matt was really confident when he saw him work on Tuesday morning that he was right as rain to come down here,” Dunn said.
Dunn said it had been a massive ask for the horse to overcome the travel but gave credit to Rosehill trainer Gerald Ryan who had looked after Quatronic.
She said they would try to give the horse time to recover before his next run.
“Matt tries to space his runs so I’m not sure where he’s going to go next start,” Dunn said.
“He did think that maybe we could go back to the (Country) Championship races.
“He’s so lean and he does feel his runs – he tries so hard.”
Dunn said prize money increases announced by Racing NSW on Tuesday would see their horses race on Sydney tracks more regularly.
“With the prize money increases we’re in a fantastic spot,” she said.
