Fawkner Park has gone some way towards offsetting the disappointment of an abandoned Caulfield Cup campaign with a consolation victory in the $750,000 Rosehill Gold Cup.
A dominant winner of the Q22 during the Brisbane winter carnival, the gelding was among the early fancies for the Melbourne feature but struggled to handle the reverse way of going first-up in the Underwood Stakes.
Trainers Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald made the difficult decision to pull up stumps and bring the horse back to Sydney, but their reward came with Saturday’s 2000m win.
“Full credit to the team at home, they’ve worked very hard to get him right,” Archibald said.
“He just wasn’t appreciating the Melbourne way, for whatever reason, and he’s just gradually building confidence since he’s come back (to Sydney).”
After finishing fifth in the Craven Plate (1800m) at Randwick last weekend, Fawkner Park ($4.60 betting fav) handled the seven-day back-up to just hold out the late charge of Wycliff ($26) by a long head with Hinged ($5.50) running her usual honest race for third, another short neck away.
Archibald said the winner was entitled to get tired late given the stop-start nature of his campaign.
“He’s had an interrupted preparation and he was probably entitled to get a little bit tired late,” he said.
“(Owners) Bennett Racing have never really lost the faith. While it didn’t always go to plan, they stuck solid and it’s been a big team effort behind the scenes to get him right.
“It’s a nice reward.”
Archibald said they hadn’t locked in a plan for Fawkner Park but the Listed The Beauford (2300m) at Newcastle next month would be considered.
Fawkner Park gave Tyler Schiller a double on the Golden Eagle Day program after he took out the Highway Handicap aboard Villasaurus.
