 A confident betting plunge on the Sutton Grange trained Roman Arch
came off when he scored an easy win in this afternoon's Rosemount Estate Diamond Shiraz
1400 at Flemington.After opening with bookmakers on
track at $8 the Archway colt was quickly backed into second favouritism at $4.20.
The win gave leading rider Greg Childs an early double
after he won the first race of the card aboard the Tony McEvoy trained McBeal in a photo
finish.
The three-year-old Roman Arch was to be ridden by Andrew
Findlay but was replaced after Findlay was unable to make his weight of 52.5 kilograms.
Roman Arch's trainer Robbie Laing was confident the colt
would run well today after a strong last start win at Yarra Glen.
"It may have only been a Class One at Tarra Glen, but
he won by six lengths and it could have been more," Laing said.
"They also ran two seconds faster than the older
horses on the same day," he added.
 The last start win at
Yarra Glen came after a disappointing last at Moonee Valley when he started equal
favourite.
"His Moonee Valley run was a mystery," Laing
said. "He didn't have much luck but really he did go bad."
Today there were no anxious moments as punters watched him
stride away from his rivals to win by two and three quarter lengths.
Roman Arch gave his chasing rivals no chance by sprinting
home his last 600 metres in an impressive 33.77 seconds.
The New Zealand gelding Delargo ($10-$11) chased hard but
was no match for the winner in second place, while Bust Up ($10-$11) nosed out Mr
Trickster ($8-$10) for third.
The drifting favourite Walk On Air ($2-$4.20) settled just
behind the leaders but after straightening he wasn't able to quicken sufficiently the
worry the leading division. He only plugged to the line and finished over five lengths
from the winner in sixth place. |
