Sydney trainer Anthony Cummings was quick to praise jockey Blake Shinn for his winning ride on Upbeat in the Group 2 $180,000 BMW Caulfield Autumn Classic (1800m) at Caulfield today.
Upbeat was a late nomination for today’s race but Cummings pulled the right rein when he bought the three year old to Melbourne and with the addition of the blinkers he came up with the right results.
“I really thought he has a great chance coming here. He ran against the older horses last start and had no luck and he had a really nice ride form Blake.” Cummings said.
“Actually he came in as a late nomination. We had originally planned to race him Sydney but after his last run he either had to come back in distance or go up, the race was here Group 2 , the horse was fit and it made sense to come here.”
Shinn had Upbeat travelling smoothly coming to the home turn and skipped clear at the 300m and with the addition of the blinkers the three year old responded and made a winning break.
“A great training performance by Anthony. He bought the horse down from Sydney after backing up last week. The race could not have scripted out any better. There was no sort of speed on paper.”
“He’s an on speed horse and with the blinkers on for the first time we just controlled the tempo from up front. I went a little early but I had a lap full of horse at the 600m. It was a really strong effort,” Shinn said.
Upbeat started at $13 and looked the winner at the 200m and comfortably held off the the fast finishing Flashy Fella who was the rank outsider of the field at $101.
Favourite Specter ($3.40) travelled with the leaders but couldn’t sprint at the top of the straight for Stephen Arnold and only plodded to finish just behind the placegetters.
Danny The Fox and jockey Brad Rawiller looked in a bit of trouble on the home turn when the second favourite was squeezed and hit the running rail but were able to regain their balance and finish the race.
Cummings will probably leave Upbeat in Melbourne and said there is a suitable race at Moonee Valley in about a month.
