A fighting win by Alma’s Fury in the Listed Eye Liner Stakes prompted trainer Tony Gollan to pay tribute to the six-year-old’s former mentor Paul Murray.
Alma’s Fury ($12) gave jockey Jim Byrne a winning treble at Ipswich on Saturday when he fought on to beat Masthead ($4.40) by a short half-head in the Eye Liner (1350m).
Alma’s Fury – Jim Byrne
Kembla Grange trainer Murray had Alma’s Fury for much of his career including a win in the Group Two Apollo Stakes at Warwick Farm last year.
However, connections decided to send Alma’s Fury to Gollan for the winter carnival and the gelding put the writing on the wall when beaten only two lengths in the QTC Cup two weeks ago.
“I want to pay tribute to Paul. the horse arrived in great condition and we were able to get right on with it,” Gollan said.
“I thought Alma’s Fury’s first run for us in the QTC Cup was great and we drew a good alley today which meant Jim could ride him with a sit. Then again things didn’t exactly work out as we planned to be swooping on the corner,” Gollan said.
Alma’s Fury will now tackle the Listed Glasshouse Mountains Sprint (1400m) at Caloundra in a fortnight.
The gelding lifted his total prizemoney to just over $700,000 with the win.
Gollan added Alma’s Fury was starting to become hard to place because of his high rating.
It has been a great winter for Gollan who prepared the Doomben 10,000 winner Spirit of Boom and the Stradbroke Hcp runner-up Temple of Boom.
It was Byrne’s second win in the Eye Liner having taken the race in 1992 on Rancho Miss.
However, it was so long ago Byrne couldn’t remember the winners name.
“It has been a good day and he really did show some spirit when challenged. We got a lovely run through on the home turn and that was the difference,” Byrne said.
Chris Munce said Masthead had come with a rush and would have won in a couple of more bounds.
Playitstraight ($14) did a good job to finish third after looming out wide on the track at the 200m.
