Racing: Owners' perseverance rewarded

The owners of Ginga Dude are lucky they don't live within a 50km radius of Auckland.

If they did they would not have taken home the winner's cheque from yesterday's $100,000 West Brook Winery Avondale Gold Cup.

When trainer Graeme Boyd and fellow owner Raewyn Yovich were on the Bombay Hills heading towards Avondale yesterday afternoon with Ginga Dude on the trailer float behind them they heard on the radio the official Avondale track rating had been downgraded to slow.

"We came so close to turning around and heading back home," said Graeme Boyd.

"Then I thought, well, we've come a long way already, so I suppose we should keep going."

But there was no confidence.

"The worry was that the footing was a good 3 when we left home and a slow 8 when we got here," said Boyd.

Fortune favours the brave.

Ginga Dude is trained in Kaipaki, essentially the Mystery Creek area just south of Hamilton and Cambridge.

It was a trip worth making.

Although the camp were not sure of that during the running.

New rider Michael Walker rode Ginga Dude out reasonably hard to sit mid-field on the outside.

A winning ride is a winning ride and therefore a good ride, but it appeared as if Leith Innes on runner-up Boundless, took Ginga Dude straight to the outside fence because Ginga Dude was on his outside as the field rounded the home bend.

There is no question it won the race for Ginga Dude. No horses had tried the ground that wide in the eight previous races, but the footing out wide was clearly superior, as demonstrated by Irish Colleen winning the $85,000 Aussie Butcher Concorde in the only other later race on the programme.

Neither Leith Innes nor Michael Walker was saying much after the race about how Ginga Dude ended up out wide on the track, and you don't blame them.

But Graeme Boyd might have given a hint: "Michael told me where he was going to be and I don't remember it being out there."

It was the first ride on Ginga Dude for Michael Walker.

"I watched his run in the Counties Cup last start and thought he was the unlucky runner - I felt he should have probably won - so I rang for the ride," said Walker at the official presentation.

"I'm pleased I could repay the connections for their faith in me.

"It's a long time since I've won a good race on a good horse and I hope I can keep the ride."

Graeme Boyd, who trains only this one horse, said Ginga Dude would head to the weight-for-age Zabeel Classic over the Ellerslie carnival and possibly the City Of Auckland Cup after which he would be given a break. Counties Cup winner Boundless was gutsy in running second.

She sat three deep without cover for much of the race and never stopped fighting to go down narrowly.

"She was never really happy in that footing," said Innes.

Rain that set in early in the day and got heavier mid-programme beat many of the chances. Southern mare O'Reilly Rose clung on gamely to finish third.