A late decision to run has paid dividends for the Wells family after Gee Gee Fiorente took out the $50,000 Sheffield Cup in thrilling fashion on Sunday at Spreyton.
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After winning the Golden Mile earlier this month, there was conjecture whether Gee Gee Fiorente ($100) would push on to the Sheffield Cup before a tilt at the Devonport Cup.
But the gelding will now take faultless form into next month's feature race after powering home in the final stages for jockey Randy Tan to defeat reigning Devonport Cup champion and race favourite Newhart ($3.70) for the second race in a row, with Dark Wanderer ($5) back in third.
Dean Wells, speaking on behalf of his father Leon, who trains the five-year-old at Brighton, said he wasn't in favour of running Gee Gee Fiorente in the Sheffield Cup, but was happy to concede that he might have been wrong.
"I'll put my hand up and say I didn't think it was the right choice - I would have loved to see him go a month between runs," Wells said.
"But the old man knows best and we got it right this time.
"He's turned into a real winner this horse and had a beautiful run today, but Newhart looked to have it won everywhere bar the winning post.
"He let down like a really good horse over the last 100 metres."
Wells believes the form of Gee Gee Fiorente, which now extends to five wins in a row, gives the family it's best chance of Devonport Cup success for a long time.
Their only success in the North-West Coast's feature race was in 1996 when Leon trained Daileon to victory.
"Out of all our years in racing we've only won one Devonport Cup and ran second in a bout five of them," Wells said.
"This is as confident as you can be, but we're probably going into one of our strongest Devonport Cup's in a long time so it will be a good race."
The result was also a boost for winning jockey Randy Tan and his chances of retaining the ride for the Devonport Cup ahead of more experienced riders.
Tan rode Gee Gee Fiorente at 54.5kg for the Golden Mile and at 56kg for the Sheffield Cup.
"Randy got the ride in the Golden Mile because we couldn't get another jockey that could ride 54.5kg - Brendon (McCoull) usually rides him but he can't get down to that weight in these races.
"He got the job done in the Golden Mile so we put him on again today.
"He's two from two now and jockeys are pretty hard to get off when they are winning like that.
"It will be dad's decision as to whether he gets the ride for the Devonport Cup, but I can't see why not.
"The horse didn't quite look comfortable around the 600m, but Randy knows what his assets are and got him moving at the right time."
Elsewhere on the eight-race card, jockey Ismail Toker rode a winning treble on the day after piloting Banca Nip, Barjeel and Mywordis to victory, with the first two horses giving Sheffield trainer Rowan Hamer a winning double.