A decision by the owners of Powercharged to change course and head for the Devonport Cup has paid handsome dividends after its win on Wednesday.
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Spokesperson Darren Simmonds and the majority of the other 10 Launceston-based owners were trackside for the victory, celebrating an occasion that never looked likely a few months ago.
“This is absolutely unbelievable – our biggest win,” Simmonds said.
“We were never going to go this way, we were tackling weight-for-age races but the lure of this race today at 54kg made it an easy decision.
“We just thought he was the best-weighted horse in the race today and a lot of form judges didn’t think that.
“But if you look at the from we had 3.5kg off Jerilderie Letter today and only got beat a length by it last start (Tasmanian Stakes) and was charging home hard.
“It was just a matter of getting the luck today and Ismail (Toker) rode the horse really well.
“He set the race up by being midfield past the post the first time –when I saw that I knew we would be hard to beat.”
After plenty of hard grind at Spreyton riding trackwork, the dream of winning the Devonport Cup finally became reality for the 27-year-old Toker, who was born in Turkey.
“It’s been my dream from a long time ago,” he said after the win on Powercharged.
“I’ve been working here at this track for the last for four years and am one of the main jockeys here.
“Many jockeys say the Melbourne Cup is their dream, but this is my Melbourne Cup – it’s a dream come true today.”
Toker said a drop in weight was always going to help Powercharged against some of the more fancied runners.
“It had good from in its last start when it carried 59kg behind a great horse like Admiral,” he said.
“Dropping to 54kg today – I thought I would ride him a bit closer (to the speed).
“I rolled him three-wide all the way, got to the front early and he never slowed down.
We were never going to go this way, we were tackling weight-for-age races but the lure of this race today at 54kg made it an easy decision.
- Powercharged co-owner Darren Simmonds
“When he hit the 200m mark down the home straight I thought he would be very hard to beat.”