Jockey Damian Lane has rebounded straight away to win the Manion Cup at Rosehill on Master Of Arts after being dislodged at the start of the previous race.
Lane steered the Darren Weir-trained Master Of Arts to victory in the 2400m race, 35 minutes after he came off Harlow Gold as the field left the barriers in the Epona Stakes.
Lane was not hurt and Harlow Gold was declared a non-runner after stewards ruled she had been denied a fair start because Lane’s reins had come undone.
Master Of Arts is on a path to the Sydney Cup and firmed from $101 to $15 for the 3200m Group One race after the Rosehill win.
The six-year-old gelding travelled well midfield before working into the race strongly approaching the home turn.
Lane peeled Master Of Arts ($8.50) into the clear inside the final 400m and he held off Alward ($5) by a neck with a head to Peribsen ($10) third.
It gave Weir back-to-back Manion Cups after Big Duke won the event 12 months ago.
Master Of Arts, who is raced by Paul Fudge’s Waratah Thoroughbreds, was scratched from the recent Adelaide Cup (3200m) after drawing wide, with attention turning to Sydney.
The stayer had also trialled over hurdles since his last-start second in the Lord Reims Stakes in Adelaide.
“He has done a lot of schooling and obviously it’s the right decision by Paul Fudge and the owners to miss the Adelaide Cup,” Weir’s stable representative Jarrod McLean said.
“He drew wide and he had a big weight (in the Adelaide Cup) and Paul just thought he couldn’t win it, so why waste a run?”
McLean said the plan would be to head to the Chairman’s Quality (2600m) at Randwick in two weeks, a week before the 2018 Sydney Cup.
