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Here To Shock wins the BRC Sprint and secures a place

Posted on by angelo
Here To Shock wins the BRC Sprint and secures a place

Hayes’ boys will have a golden chance in Group 1 to do something their legendary father never managed: win the prestigious Queensland Stradbroke Handicap.

Brothers JD, Will and Ben have a Stradbroke contender with Here To Shock winning the $300,000 Group 3 BRC Sprint at Doomben, a race which gives the winner a golden ticket to next month’s Stradbroke at Eagle Farm.

It’s another feather in the cap of the Hayes boys, who, along with Mr Brightside, twice won the Doncaster Mile, a race the famous racing family had never won before.

David Hayes, speaking from Hong Kong where he now trains, said he remained extremely proud of his sons’ efforts.

Hayes Sr said he hadn’t personally triggered many runners in the Stradbroke and was pleased his sons were rolling out Here To Shock, which fell from $51 to $15 in betting on Stradbroke after his win tight at the BRC Sprint.

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Tony Gollan’s galloper Freedom Rally was desperately unlucky in the BRC Sprint and almost certainly should have won, coming back a mile after missing the start to make things interesting at the line.

But nothing was taken away from the victory of Here To Shock, who won at $8 odds and will now have another chance at Group 1 glory after being outclassed in four Group 1 attempts.

“The finishing photos haven’t really gone as planned over the last six months, so it was great to put my head down,” JD Hayes said.

“It was a brave effort from the horse, a great ride and it was just great.

“The BRC Sprint-Stradbroke Handicap double is difficult to achieve, but he is a horse in good form and is a force to be reckoned with.”

The photo finish result seemed to take forever as the unlucky Freedom Rally raced forward, but narrowly fell short in what was almost certainly his last chance to secure a place in the Stradbroke.

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Winning jockey Michael Dee had to wait nervously for the numbers to be released, but he was always quite confident he had won.

“I thought I could have held on,” Dee said.

“It was a tough effort, but I’m glad the winning post came up at that time.”

Craig Williams narrowly finished second in back-to-back races after narrowly failing to ride New Endeavor in the Group 1 Doomben Cup just 40 minutes earlier.

He and Gollan were left to lament what might have happened with Freedom Rally, who might have joined stablemate Antino in the Stradbroke.

“He’s a serious horse,” said Williams of Freedom Rally.

“He stood in front of the doors for a long time and he hated it.

“From where we were in the race, we were told to do it, but it was a huge race.”