Underrated galloper Vittorio Veneto (NZ) (Redwood) delivered the perfect gift for connections on Cambridge’s synthetic track on Thursday, powering to victory in the Cambridge Real Estate 1300.
A lightly-tried son of Redwood, Vittorio Veneto had finished in the top five in six of his attempts on the all-weather surface, but flew under the radar in an open contest where Lhasa (Hellbent) carried a clear topweight and much of the field were near the minimum.
Jumping from the centre of the line, Vittorio Veneto showed speed early under apprentice jockey Rihaan Goyaram, taking a clear lead ahead of Richard And I (NZ) (Ocean Park). The gelding was travelling comfortably into the home turn, and when asked for an extra effort, he kicked clear and put a margin on his rivals, crossing the line 3 – ¼ lengths ahead of a game Branciforti (NZ) (Belardo).
His trainer Peter Lock was delighted with the result, and more so for fellow owner Franco Dal Vecchio, who celebrated his birthday on Thursday.
“We were over the moon, it was a special day for us because Franco, who owns the horse with me, it’s his birthday today,” Lock said. “We’ve had a great association and raced horses together for about 40 years, so for the horse to win and win the way he did, it was great.
“It’s just a shame he wasn’t here to celebrate with me tonight, but we’ll definitely catch up over the weekend.”
The win was Vittorio Veneto’s third on synthetic tracks, and Lock was surprised his price drifted out to nearly $19.
“The presenters were mentioning a number of horses that were synthetic specialists, except this horse, who hasn’t been out of the money on a synthetic track,” he said. “He drifted out to around $15 or $18 in the end, so we’re happy with the result.
“In about three or four weeks’ time, there is a $100,000 race back here over 2000m, so being a three-win horse, hopefully he can get in on a nice weight. We’ll have a crack at that, I’d be happy to run second or third in a race with that stake.”
Vittorio Veneto is flying the flag for the Te Aroha stable at present, but his talented stablemate Debit (NZ) (Darci Brahma) is not far from hitting the track herself after a bold showing at the Te Awamutu trials on Tuesday.
The speedy daughter of Darci Brahma has been patiently handled by Lock and she rewarded him in spades last term, winning three out of three starts. After a deserved spell, she returned at the Foxton trials last month and showed clear improvement from that effort with a tidy second placing over 850m behind Australian import Azeezle (Exceed And Excel).
“We were very happy with her,” he said. “When she went to the Foxton trials, she’d done a lot of work on the treadmill, I’m not a big fan on galloping her too much and we’ve had a lot of bad weather.
“She hadn’t really had the work I wanted to get into her going into that trial, and she’d really improved a tonne out of that.
“She’ll have one more trial, last year she had four trials before going to the races and won her next three, so being a year older, I just think she needs one more to be 100 percent fit.”