Eagle Farm may have had only a small crowd on Saturday, but Dusty Tycoon was able to garner a good decibel level from her adoring fans when she landed some good bets to win the Benchmark 72 Handicap.
Dusty Tycoon races in the MiRunners colours and hence has hundreds of micro owners sharing in every one of her successes.
Quite a few of them were at Eagle Farm and their cheering started from the 300m point as the four-year-old mare burst clear.
Trainer Rob Heathcote said there was extra emotion with this win, as there was a time where he thought Dusty Tycoon may not make it back to the races.
“We love her to death,” Heathcote said. “She’s gone through the wars and after that throat operation, we weren’t sure whether we would get her back.
“Just getting her back winning … there’s 750 very happy MiRunners owners.”
Dusty Tycoon tracked a good tempo being set by Lady Banff and once she put her away, left her rivals with no hope as she ran the 1200m out very strongly.
A winner of her first two starts as a two-year-old over 1000m and 1050m, Dusty Tycoon is destined to be stretched over further, with Heathcote revealing he believes she could even be effective up to 1600m.
“I would love to see her sitting on a soft tempo over that sort of trip and seeing if they can catch her,” he said.
The win continued the blossoming partnership between Heathcote and apprentice Leah Kilner, who is on loan to the Eagle Farm trainer at the moment.
Kilner is keen to press her claims for the metropolitan apprentices title this season and intends to seek an extension on her apprenticeship, which is due to expire in December.
Another apprentice making waves at the moment is Jaden Lloyd, who was able to pilot Samurai to become the first Saturday metropolitan winner for John Moore since his relocation to the Gold Coast.
The former champion Hong Kong trainer is keen to build to 40 boxes on the Gold Coast, but for the moment is making the most of the few runners he has in work.
Samurai was formerly trained by the late Noel Doyle, with connections opting to send the gelding to Moore after Doyle’s sad passing earlier this year.
Samurai had run second to Rock Amore at his previous start and relished the extra 100m to finish strongly along the inside under Lloyd.
