A maiden purchase in New Zealand has given Lindsay Park some heart for the future with his debut Australian win at Sandown.
Rheinberg, a four-year-old son of Swiss Ace, raced to an impressive win in the Ladbroke It! Plate (1400m) on Wednesday.
Sent out the $4.20 favourite under Michael Dee, Rheinberg scored a 1-¼ length win from Oceanique ($12) with Skinny Dip ($201) a half-length away third.
Rheinberg was purchased as a three-start maiden from New Zealand by Wayne Ormond, the same agent that secured Group 1 winner Mr Brightside when Ben and J D Hayes had just taken over at the helm of Lindsay Park.
Mr Brightside was beaten at his Australian debut at Bendigo, before going on a six-run winning streak which culminated with a fourth in the Group 1 Cantala Stakes at Flemington before the gelding went on to take out the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap in his second preparation for the stable.
Ben Hayes said Rheinberg still has a long way to go to match the deeds of Mr Brightside but was a nice horse in the making.
“When Mr Brightside won, I would not have told you he was going to be the Mr Brightside he is now,” Hayes said.
“But you never know. These horses can come from anywhere.
“He’s a lovely big strong horse, he looked very raw to me today, but we won with a bit of authority.
“There’s a few of the Mr Brightside owners in him. They’ve had a good ride and this guy looks quite progressive and hopefully he can do similar things to Mr Brightside.”
Dee said he had ridden Rheinberg is his trials and jump-outs in the lead-up to his first Australian start and thought the gelding had a good deal of ability.
“He gave me the feel like he could go anywhere first-up and be competitive,” Dee said.
“Today the only issue was the barrier draw. It was a little awkward there in the early stages and I thought I was going to be three wide in the early stages, but I was able to slot in one-one, and he made pretty easy work of it at the finish.”
