Hugh Bowman was not sold on riding Nettoyer in the Aspiration Quality but luckily for him, his manager convinced him otherwise.
The top jockey found out why at Randwick on Saturday with the Wendy Roche-trained mare producing a blistering finish from last to swamp her rivals and go back-to-back in the Group Three race.
“Wow, I’m speechless,” Bowman said.
“I actually rang my manager, Bryan Haskins, during the week and asked him why I was riding this (mare).
“Bryan said ‘trust me, Nettoyer will go really well’.
“I’ve been with Bryan for 20 years and he has been a great part of my success. He doesn’t get the credit he deserves.”
Nettoyer has been an enigmatic mare but packs a lethal turn of foot when she is on her game.
Roche said she was confident the six-year-old could feature first up in Saturday’s 1600-metre race and told Bowman the mare was capable of clocking a slick 33 seconds for her final 600 metre sectional.
But she admitted she started to worry when leader Irithea kicked strongly on straightening, fearing Bowman had left his run too late.
“I said to Hughie she will run 33 so just let her do her own thing but I thought he’d go a lot earlier,” Roche said.
“I was kicking him at the half mile.”
She need not have worried with Nettoyer ($5.50) scoring by a long neck over Irithea with another 1-1/2 lengths to Savacool ($14).
Emeralds was backed into favouritism and finished seventh but was subsequently found to have bled from both nostrils, incurring an automatic three-month ban.
