Trainer Robbie Griffiths only had one runner today at Flemington today and he went away with a job well done after the very smart gelding Legacy Bound underlined his potential by landing his fourth win in only his sixth career start.
Racing first-up after just over a three month break from race action, the son of Ole Kirk was seemingly faced with a fair task at the weights.
Even though Legacy Bound, who started as the $2.35 favourite, benefitted from some weight relief from the 61kg he had been set to carry with Logan Bates’s 2kg claim in the saddle, he still had to give away a weight advantage of between 3.5kg and 6kg to all of his six rivals.
The Chris Waller trained $8 chance Burma Star tried to make the most of his pull at the weights chasing Legacy Bound all the way to the line, but the latter’s class prevailed in the end, carrying Legacy Bound to a clearcut victory by a comfortable winning margin of 1.25 lengths.
That was not surprising really as that above average ability had already been very much in evidence before, not least when Legacy Bound finished third in the Coolmore Stud Stakes over 1200m when finishing three lengths behind the boom horse Tentyris, who he met at level weights.
That result came in Legacy Bound’s final run of his previous preparation.
In the run before that Legacy Bound finished fourth in the Danehill Stakes over 1110m and those two Group race assignments came on the back of an impressive run of three successive victories, including wins in the Breeders’ Stakes at Morphettville over 1200m and the Poseidon Stakes over 1110m.
“I was a bit worried about him going to the start,” said Logan Bates. “He was a bit fresh, but during the run he relaxed beautifully. He went through his gears, and he had them done there from a long way out.
“He’s a lovely horse. There is obviously going to be better things in store for him. He is very strong. He is powerful … and he loves the straight too … so, I’m sure he is in for a good prep.”
