The Mark Newnham trained Lord Olympus ($8) was yet another visitor on the day to make a winning debut in Queensland. The three-year-old proved too strong for his rivals in the Listed Mick Dittman Plate, beating Zingalong ($19) by 0.25 length.
Lord Olympus certainly had the credentials coming into the race. In his last two starts he had finished third, less than a length behind Capriccio in the Inglis Dash at Flemington and fifth, 3.30 lengths behind Isotope in the Darby Munro at Rosehill.
A brief freshen up and Lord Olympus was ready to go and the win could not have been more emphatic.
Jockey Michael Cahill, who has scored a winner the race before aboard the Kody Nestor trained Cardiff, had to all to do approaching the turn if he was to claim back-to-back race wins as he had Lord Olympus back in last place, all of seven lengths off the leader.
The ride was inspired though as Cahill rode for luck initially, saving ground along the inside, before a deft switch wider saw Cahill pick his route through the pack of horses in front of him to guide Lord Olympus down a winning path.
And Lord Olympus was a winning partner, responded positively to every request from the saddle and striding out with a real will to win over the closing stages to down Zingalong late after Ronnie Stewart had looked like he would bring another outsider home, this time for the Trevor Miller stable
The race produced some real early drama when the $2.50 favourite Simply Fly attempted to buck-jump and swerved sharply outwards shortly after the start sending jockey Stephanie Thornton crashing to the ground.
Thornton was transported to hospital for observation, but the good news is that her only injury is a sprained hand which, considering the intensity of the fall, can be classed as a good outcome.
