Kiwi Connection Wins Inglis Sires at 90/1

[Chief Stipe]

El Dorado Dreaming storms home to claim huge Sires' upset

By James Buckley

7 April 2018 — 4:20pm

 

The owner didn't want her horse to run and the jockey didn't want the ride but none of that mattered to El Dorado Dreaming, who stormed home in the Inglis Sires' to hand Ben Smith his second group 1 win in a fortnight.

Smith convinced owner Yvette Pearce to contest the race, while original jockey Corey Brown pulled out of the ride on Tuesday, paving the way for Damian Lane to steer the $81 Newcastle filly from near last in the straight to a final-stride win.

Lane gave the filly nine cracks with the whip before the 100m, four more than permitted, and she ran over the top of race favourite Oohood and third-placed Outrageous.

Brown informed Smith on Tuesday afternoon that he wasn't going to partner El Dorado Dreaming in a bid to reduce his commitments given he had spent the week wasting away to make the 49kg weight to ride D'Argento in the Doncaster.

Brown never made it to the Doncaster – he was stood down following his ride on The Lord Mayor in the Australian Derby during which he broke his ribs after the horse bucked, and needed to be put on a drip.

“I thought I got beat and I was filthy with myself but we got there and obviously she has a bucket-load of talent," Lane said.

“I went back from the wide draw seeing most of the field –I think I was second-last – and as we turned for home, I thought this horse is travelling.

“I thought I may have waited a bit to long on one earlier in the day so I just went for home and I thought I had done the opposite and thought I got done, what a thrill.”

El Dorado Dreaming finished second in a Newcastle maiden just seven days ago and Pearce wasn't keen to have her back up in a group 1 but Smith had other ideas.

"I convinced Yvette, it might be a bit too much too soon but I think she'll run really well and you're only a two-year-old once," Smith said.

"Let's just have a throw at the stumps. The week went good, she had a nice easy week because it was a seven-day back-up.

"She really turned the corner from that run at Newcastle. There's some quality horses in the race but we thought we were a genuine chance."

Pearce bred the filly by Ilovethiscity out of a Zabeel mare to be a middle-distance runner as a three-year-old, and is now toying with the idea of aiming her at the VRC Oaks at Flemington in the spring.

"It was on my bucket list to spend my children's inheritance to buy a Zabeel mare because I'm a Kiwi," Pearce said. "This is all a bonus, I bred her to be a 1600-, 2000-metre horse as a three-year-old."