Mick Kent was happy to give Amadeus his chance in the VOBIS Gold Bullion given the prize money on offer and the horse did not let the trainer down, racing to a strong victory in the $120,000 race at Pakenham.
The 1400m event was restricted to horses paid up for the VOBIS Gold race series in Victoria and Amadeus, who firmed from $26 to $11, sprinted clear over the final 200m on Saturday to win by 2-1/4 lengths.
Willi Willi ($6.50) finished off well in his return to racing for second while $4.20 favourite Burning Front raced up on the pace and led into the straight before finishing another half-neck away third .
“We had a bit of a throw at the stumps because he looked badly handicapped in the race but the VOBIS Gold money is so attractive,” Kent said.
Amadeus had a handicapper rating of 67 going into the race and was getting only 3kg off well-performed horses such as Burning Front and Grande Rosso, who were rated 104 and 101, respectively.
The victory was Amadeus’ third from 14 starts.
“He won really well,” Kent said.
“He’s got good ability. He had a bad injury a while ago and it’s taken him a while to get back to his best form. He was unlucky last start (at Kyneton) but to beat those horses at the weights was a good effort.”
