Brotherly love overcame sibling rivalry at Doomben on Wednesday when leading apprentice Justin Wood replaced his injured younger brother Mitchell and reaped the rewards.
The Wood brothers are enjoying a battle royal in the apprentices’ title and Justin’s win as a replacement for Mitch on La Bella Rose in the Padua College Handicap (1350m) took his city tally to 17 this season, five ahead of his brother.
Mitchell is laid up in hospital with three broken ribs and a bruised spleen after an accident at the trials on Tuesday when a horse crushed him against the rail in the stalls as he was unsaddling it.
Justin picked up two of his brother’s mounts and elected to ride them with his whip.
“I’m riding for him that’s for sure,” Justin said.
“He’s pretty crook and when I packed my gear bag this morning I thought I would use his whip for luck and it’s paid off.
“His bad luck has been my good luck but he’ll be back soon, there’s no doubt about that.”
Justin, 19, is apprenticed to Steele Ryan at Deagon while Mitchell, 18, is with Kelly Schweida at Eagle Farm but they are extremely close and both live at home with their parents.
La Bella Rose’s trainer Alan Bailey said the Shamardal filly was loaded with staying potential but stopped short of setting her on a Queensland Oaks path.
“She’s a big strong filly and we’ll let her tell us where she wants to go,” he said.
“I’ll look for a restricted race over a bit further next time and take it one step at a time.”
Meanwhile, Gold Coast trainer Bruce Hill’s decision to take Looklook on an extended road trip to gain experience paid rewards when the lightly-raced gelding won the Skyracing.TV Plate (1650m).
Hill sent Looklook to Victoria last month as a travelling companion for his good galloper Startsmeup and the Stratum three-year-old almost paid his expenses when he finished second at Pakenham at his last run.
“I think he will develop into a handy stayer,” Hill said.
“We carted him around Victoria to help him mature and he’s done a good job to win because it’s been a month between runs.
“He’s going to get better over more ground and we’ll keep him going towards the better three-year-old races during the carnival.”
AAP TURF
