Coming into Saturday’s Eagle Farm meeting, jockey Andrew Mallyon had scored five wins from his last nine rides and his rich vein of form continued when he produced a polished ride on the Kris Lees trained Ventura Ocean to ensure that the five-year-old, Australian Bloodstock purchase remained unbeaten in his two starts in Australia.
Baroda, Flying Crackerjack and Rich And Shameless formed a line of three looking likely to fight out the finish inside the final 200m but, just when the long-priced Rich and Famous got the better of the three-way battle, Mallyon and Ventura Ocean pounced to win going away by 0.30 lengths.
“He is a very good horse, this bloke, “said Mel Eggleston, the stable representative. I can tell when Kris (Lees) has an opinion of one, especially when he says he is only going to give it one more run.
“I think he is planning something bigger for this horse and I think this horse is going to make the grade.
“There is so much upside for this horse, His demeanour is that of a good horse. He just does everything the way a good horse does.
“Over the years we have had some good horses up here of Australian Bloodstock and Kris’s and he fits that mould … and I just think he is building all the time.”
‘He drew a bit sticky here and Kris just said he’d leave it up to Andrew what to do which proved to be the right call.
“Andrew had it in his head he didn’t want to go back. He used up a bit of juice early and got him over. Good horses … you can ride them like that. Then he came back underneath him which was exactly what you wanted him to do.”
Ventura Ocean’s debut win in Australia was in a Class 3 race.
Here, he jumped to a Class 6 contest and stepped up the distance test from 1200m to 1400m which posed no problem at all.
