Spacewalk lands overdue stakes win

Luck hasn’t always favoured Spacewalk, but the Godolphin sprinter has been rewarded for his consistency with his first black-type success.

The gelding has had to settle for his fair share of stakes placings, including when he threw away almost certain victory in last year’s The Rosebud by ducking out, and again when losing the Poseidon Stakes in Melbourne to Buenos Noches on protest.

But the three-year-old finally got his turn in the sun with his triumph in Saturday’s Listed Bob Charley AO Stakes (1100m) at Randwick.

Spacewalk ($3.90) had to do it the hard way after travelling three-wide on the speed but had the tenacity to unleash a sharp turn of foot and hit the front, holding out last year’s winner Dragonstone ($15) by a short neck with Wewillrock ($3.60) third.

Godolphin spokesman Paul Reid said Spacewalk showed fortitude to overcome a wide run and upstage the older horses.

“It was good in that company to do it tough and beat those seasoned sprinters,” Reid said.

“This is a perfect time of the year for him and hopefully there is another couple of races for him.

“The Ramornie Handicap might suit him.”

With many of Sydney’s leading jockeys in Brisbane for the Stradbroke Handicap meeting, Godolphin called on Jean Van Overmeire to fill the void and partner their three Sydney runners.

Van Overmeire has been riding for Sheikh Mohammed’s team at the provincials since his recent return from Dubai and head trainer James Cummings was happy to give him an opportunity in town.

“James was quick to jump on him and said, ‘why don’t we book him for the day?'” Reid said.

“He deserved that win and so did the horse.”

For his part, Van Overmeire was thrilled to get a Listed win in the Royal Blue silks.

“We got the call up a couple of weeks ago and obviously I wasn’t going to say no,” Van Overmeire said.

“I elected to slide forward and get outside the two leading pairs in a three-wide spot but the way he was travelling was just phenomenal.

“He gave me a lot of confidence at the 400 and at the 300 when I gave him a squeeze, he quickened very well. It was quite impressive.”