Gong glory for Gringotts
Gringotts (Per Incanto) continued his coming-of-age campaign with a powerhouse front-running performance under 60 kilograms to reward connections with another valuable pay day in Saturday’s $1 million The Gong (1600m) at Kembla Grange.
Lining up off the back of his win The Big Dance (1600m) earlier in the month, the Ciaron Maher-trained gelding beat Superazi (Super One) by 0.8 lengths with Steparty (Artie Schiller) another 1.5 lengths away in third. He has now won nine of his 17 starts, earning more than $3 million in prize-money in the process.
Winning rider Tommy Berry was clearly impressed by this latest success.
“I think he’s better than what I first thought he was,” he said. “It’s not easy for a horse to win with 60 kilograms, and he was almost toying with them in the straight.
“He seems to just get better as his preps go on. You saw that in his last preparation, when they were trying to win their way into The Big Dance. Now they’re just letting him do the talking.”
Maher and his team will now consider raising the bar again for a shot at the $2 million The Ingham (Gr 2, 1600m) at Randwick on December 14.
“He’s definitely getting better and better all the time,” assistant trainer Johann Gerard-Dubord said. “His target in this preparation was The Big Dance, and he got the job done there. But for him to continue into this race and do what he did today is great.
“He’ll keep improving. He’s done a very good job in this preparation, but he’ll be a proper horse going forward.
“If you see him every day, he’s still doing a lot wrong on a day-to-day basis and has a tendency to get hot. There’s still so much learning to come. I think he’ll be hard to beat if we go to The Ingham with him.”
Bred by Totara Park Stud, Gringotts is out of the unraced Savabeel (Zabeel) mare Miss Bluebell, a daughter of Operavega (Stravinsky), whose half-sister Vegas Showgirl (Al Akbar) was the dam of the legendary Winx (Street Cry).
Miss Bluebell’s half-sister Miss Vegas (Carlton House) was in the spotlight this week when her two-year-old son by Proisir (Choisir) sold for $650,000 during the Ready To Run Sale at Karaka.
Gringotts was offered by Archer Park in Book 1 of Karaka 2021, where Kasa Bloodstock bought him for $100,000. He was re-offered at the Ready To Run Sale later that year, but failed to meet his $450,000 reserve. He was subsequently sold privately after winning a trial at Waipa for Simon and Katrina Alexander.