Former English stayer Richard Of Yorke won with ease at Randwick
On a day featuring the re-scheduled Group One Sydney Cup at Randwick, former English stayer Richard Of Yorke has shown enough to fuel hope he may be competing at that level in future.
On the back of his recent good form in Melbourne, the Chris Waller-trained gelding was sent out the $2.25 favourite with Crownbet in Saturday’s 2400m-benchmark 78 handicap.
With dual Melbourne Cup jockey Kerrin McEvoy the navigator, Richard Of Yorke came with a well-timed run to beat Last Wish ($21) by two lengths with Paragon ($7.50) a nose third.
“There’s the 3200-metre Stayers Cup for him in a few weeks,” Waller said.
“He has won a race at Ascot. He’s got a long way to go yet to get to the top level but he’s going the right way.
“It was a 10 out of 10 ride from Kerrin. Our speed maps had him leading but Kerrin said there was more speed in the race than we might have thought and he was right.”
McEvoy said Richard Of Yorke was not all that happy in the ground which remained heavy and suffering some wear and tear after several weeks of wet-track racing.
“He wasn’t loving the ground round the side there and round the corner but once he went up and rolling past the 300 (metres) he started to assert his authority,” he said.
“He’s a handicap stayer I think. I’m not sure if he’s anything better but he’s in winning form.”
