A confident ride by Tommy Berry has helped pull off a long-range plan with promising miler Gringotts, who has overcome an outside draw to post a resounding win in the $3 million Big Dance at Randwick.
The five-year-old qualified for the Melbourne Cup Day feature by taking out the Tamworth Cup in April and trainer Ciaron Maher has been single-minded in his goal to have Gringotts peaking for Tuesday’s race.
A horror draw in barrier 23 of 24 put a spanner in the works, but Berry was able to utilise the horse’s fitness by bouncing him out and positioning him one off the fence, banking on Gringott’s class to do the rest.
“He was timed to perfection this horse,” Berry said.
“He was a bit fresh with me last start and I said, ‘can we put a little bit more work into him’ and they got him here spot-on today.
“When he jumped so well, I just took luck out of the equation. I knew I was on the best horse in the race and rode him like that and he got the job done.”
Gringotts ($5) powered to the front at the top of the straight and held off stablemate Vivy Air ($26) by three-quarters of a length with Suparazi ($14) the same margin away third.
Berry admitted he was nervous hitting the lead so early and feared his sequence of second placings in major races was set to continue.
“I hate being in front that far out, I was just trying to get him home,” he said.
“We spoke about how many seconds I have had in big races over the last twelve months, so I just held my nerve and got the job done
“He is going to be better again next preparation.”
Gringotts is set to chase more big prizemoney races in the coming months with Maher’s Sydney foreman Johann Gerard-Dubord confirming both The Gong (1600m) at Kembla Grange and The Ingham (1600m) at Randwick in December are on the radar.
Longer-term, the Doncaster Mile could also loom as an autumn carnival goal.
But ticking off Gringott’s Big Dance (1600m) goal on Tuesday was a fitting reward and continued Maher’s fruitful spring, which has also included winning the Everest and Russell Balding Stakes with Bella Nipotina and the Caulfield Cup with Duke De Sessa.
Gerard-Dubord echoed Berry’s sentiments that Gringott’s class and fitness got him home.
“We had a bit of work to do early, but the horse was peaking, he was fit,” Gerard-Dubord said.
“We thought he was the best horse in the race and Tommy rode him accordingly.”
