The writing was on the wall with Joyful Fortune who had matched motors with Eduardo in a recent Sydney trial and Josh Parr making the trip down to Melbourne for the one ride.
Jumping an easing favourite for new trainer Mark Newnham, Parr led the field down the straight over 1100m in the Myer Fashions on the Field Sprint at Bm70 level and proved a class above, racing away to a 4-¼ length win.
Rated just 81 by Timeform after seven starts under Tony Cruz, Joyful Fortune will surely have more to come based on the strength of his win over Group 3 placed Decent Raine who held down a distant second.
Stable representative Aaron Lau explained the reasoning behind coming to Melbourne for Joyful Fortune’s Australian debut post-race.
His best form in Hong Kong has all been down the straight, his two wins have been down the straight, so we thought we’d come down here and give him every opportunity to produce a performance like that,” Lau said.
This was Joyful Fortune’s first look at rain affected ground, having exclusively raced on good-firm surfaces in Hong Kong, and Lau was optimistic the lightly raced six-year-old could improve on drier ground.
“He’s got a high cruising speed and big action and he likes to jump on pace… It was a bit of an unknown today, all his starts have been on good tracks, so it’s good that he ticked that box today because it looks like the wet tracks will be around for a while,” Lau said.
When asked about potential group class ability, jockey Josh Parr was tempered but hopeful about the gelding.
He could get there, he could definitely get there. Small steps at the moment because he’s been to Hong Kong and back so today is a great result for us.”
