THE old racing adage ‘‘horses for courses’’ certainly applies to classy sprinter Innocent Gamble, a runaway winner of the $20,000 Tapeta Sprint Prelude at Spreyton yesterday.
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The Barry Campbell-trained gelding has now had eight starts on his home track for five wins and two placings.
And, according to Campbell, there’s not much point racing him anywhere else at this time of the year.
‘‘He’s no good in the wet and he’s hopeless at Mowbray,’’ the trainer said.
‘‘But he’s a different horse here.’’
Innocent Gamble, well ridden by apprentice Ismail Toker, tracked the leader Jypsiere until the home straight before charging clear to record a convincing win.
‘‘He was very impressive,’’ Campbell said.
‘‘They’ve come home (the last 600 metres) in 34.07 seconds which is a smart effort.
‘‘He should be hard to beat again in the final (in a fortnight).
‘‘It will be a step up in distance (from 1000m to 1150m) but that won’t worry him.’’
Campbell inherited Innocent Gamble from Victoria after the horse had gone for almost 2 years without winning.
He has now won seven races in Tasmania.
Campbell and Toker also combined to win the Hygain Maiden with Scouting Around who scored in equally emphatic fashion.
Devalued dollar
THE new owners of Veolia Maiden winner Dollar Dan got value for their money when they were finally able to buy the lightly-raced six-year-old.
Trainer Glenn Stevenson explained that a mate who worked for Sydney trainer Tim Martin put him on to the horse.
‘‘But they wanted $20,000 for him and we weren’t prepared to pay that much,’’ Stevenson said.
‘‘He later ended up in an Inglis sale where we picked up him up for only $5000.
‘‘He’s got a big syndicate of owners now and I think they are going to have some fun with him.
‘‘We’ll look at some of the minor cups this season and, who knows, if he progresses, we can aim a bit higher later on.
‘‘The best thing about him is that we know he will stay.’’
In a dawdling-run race that was ugly to watch, apprentice Georgie Catania brought Dollar Dan with a late charge and he proved too good for Porto and Set For Tea.
Not too old
VETERAN mare Revenging showed there was still some life in the old legs when she rattled home for her fifth career win in the R and J Publishing (Bm72) Handicap. Trainer Mark Ganderton said that, 12 months ago, he thought Revenging might be a Devonport Cup horse ‘‘but we were aiming too high.’’
‘‘She’s not that good but she’s still been a great horse for the stable,’’ Ganderton said.
‘‘And, hopefully, she’s not finished yet.’’
Ridden by apprentice Erhan Kacmaz, Revenging swamped Regio and Tuktoyaktuk in the closing stages to score by almost a length.
‘‘It was a nice race for her – she’s suited over 1350m on this track,’’ Ganderton said.
‘‘And, she was beautifully weighted with 52 kilograms after Erhan’s claim.’’