Racing: Trip from Gisborne proves worthwhile

Poverty Bay visitor Regal Governor had the Thames Cup well parcelled up before the winning post. Photo / Christine Cornege

Poverty Bay horsewoman Joanne Moss' long trip from Gisborne to Thames would have seemed a whole lot shorter going back after Regal Governor scored easily in yesterday's Thames Cup.

The impressive Regal Governor is yet another victory for beach training.

Moss does her training on the beach at Gisborne as well as a lot of pre-training for horseman Kevin Myers.

The time for the 2000m Thames Cup was a remarkable 1:59.46, with very few 2000m races seeing the two-minute barrier broken.

It was set up by Antipodean, stepping up in distance, getting along keenly in front then being pressured at the 1200m by Blue Ranger.

Antipodean had no answer to Regal Governor's home-straight challenge, but the visitor won too well for the mid-race pressure to be used as an excuse.

Regal Governor even had the cheek to prick his ears inside the final 100m and despite the electric time, he won very easily.

Regal Governor, formerly trained at Tauranga by the now retired Del Roberts, has come a long way in a short time.

He won both days of a recent Gisborne meeting, backed up to win in R90 class and is now beating the open handicappers pointlessly.

On yesterday's performance he can make yet another step up.

Perhaps surprisingly, Regal Governor is not in the Wellington Cup.

Antipodean was understandably getting tired, but he clung to second reasonably easily with Dead Rabbits just getting up to beat last year's Thames Cup winner Valley Chief.

An R70 race at Thames is a long way from where Leica Scotch sat last year.

A bit more than 12 months ago he was considered a realistic Derby chance by trainer Roger James.

What turned out to be initially a mysterious leg problem kept Leica Scotch off the scene for a long time and he has not long been back racing.

Roger James looked around for a 2000m race and yesterday's last race at Thames was the only option.

The stylish 4-year-old settled back second last and, yes, if you took the short odds at $1.70 you did feel like a scotch when Leica Scotch was hooked up behind most of the field when Andrew Calder decided to ride for luck.

Fortune often favours the brave and the gaps kept appearing and Calder was delighted to take each one.

Leica Scotch drove between horses in the short home straight and won as he liked.

There are bigger things ahead.