Class has told as Tradesman gave Australia’s premier trainer Darren Weir his first win at the Ipswich racetrack when he took the Listed Ipswich Cup.
Weir had had four previous Ipswich runners without success but Tradesman ($1.80) had too much class and won a fight up the straight to beat First Crush ($26) by a head on Saturday.
All In Vogue ($81) was 3-1/2 lengths further back in the $175,000 race over 2150m.
The Warrnambool-based Weir had 419-1/2 winners this season before Saturday’s race but his pickings had been fairly lean, with Heavenly Thought winning the Grand Prix.
Weir was not at Ipswich on Saturday but winning jockey Dean Yendall described the win as tough.
“The other jockeys didn’t want to play my game and kept kicking up inside me. But I decided to play their game and went with them to the turn,” Yendall said.
“In the straight, I had a bit of a sword fight (with Matt McGillivray on First Crush) but my horse kept fighting back.”
Tradesman is likely to press on to the Listed Caloundra Cup in two weeks time.
The gelding has already started at Caloundra, running second to Egg Tart in the PJ O’Shea Stakes two weeks ago.
Tradesman joined Weir’s stable in December last year and won at Warrnambool in May before heading north.
First Crush went within centimetres of making Chris Munce the first to win the Cup as a jockey and then as a trainer.
“I thought he had got beaten but it was a great effort and he just kept fighting. We go on to the Grafton Cup now,” Munce said.
