By David Nagel
Cranbourne trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young will head to Sydney with their five-year-old gelding Uncle Bryn after the talented import produced a demolition job in Sunday’s $200,000 Listed Sale Cup (1600m).
Ridden patiently by Daniel Moor, Uncle Bryn unleashed a withering burst at the 200-metre mark to stroll clear of a high-quality field to win by two-and-half-lengths on the line.
The son of Sea The Stars/Wall of Sound will now head north to compete in ‘The Five Diamonds’, a $2million, 1800-metre feature, for five-year-olds, to be run at Rosehill Gardens on 5 November.
Uncle Bryn was having his fifth start this preparation, in his second prep for the Busuttin/Young camp after having three runs earlier this year.
The UK-import last raced at Newmarket in England in September last year, before having his first Australian start at Sandown in a BenchMark-78 in March.
Uncle Bryn then had his second start at Sale, where he showed glimpses of his talent with a dominant performance in the rich $150,000 Up and Comers Handicap (1717m) on Good Friday.
He was spelled a short-time later, before beginning his second campaign with a solid sixth, beaten less than three lengths by Cox Plate contender Mr Brightside in the Group-2 PB Lawrence Stakes (1400m).
Uncle Bryn then ran second at The Valley, before running second to Smokin’ Romans in the Group-3 MRC Foundation Cup (2000m), beating home Gold Trip and Geelong Cup winner Emissary.
Uncle Bryn’s last start was an abject failure behind Tuvalu in the $1m Group-1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Caulfield.
“Obviously we’ve thrown him in the deep end and we think he’s up to that grade, but he just went terrible (in the Toorak) last start and we just couldn’t find any reason why,” Busuttin said after the Sale Cup victory.
“The only thing to do was press on, we thought we’d just drop him back a peg and try and get some confidence into him.
“We thought if we turned up he’s probably better than them, but it’s never that easy, but it worked out today.
“I’ve still got full belief in him, he just got beat in the Naturalism, which swerved our path because we were heading to a Caulfield Cup.
“He probably just gets on the steel a bit much to get over a bit of ground, and he just went terrible last start, which dented things, but everyone’s allowed a bad day and thankfully he bounced back today.”
Busuttin confirmed a trip across the border was now top priority.
“There’s a nice race in Sydney worth a couple of million dollars, that’s reserved for five-year-olds, so I think we’ll be up in Sydney next start,” he said with a wry smile.
Moor said Uncle Bryn was a completely different proposition to the one he encountered at Caulfield.
“He was in a foul mood at Caulfield, he was grumpy and wanted to get on with it and pull, but today he was perfect,” Moor said post-race.
“He was in a better mood today and it showed.
“I was really disappointed that things didn’t pan out for him in the Toorak, because we went to that race off the back off the Smokin Romans form, but he was just really below par.
“He’s shown glimpses of really nice ability.
“Today he put away a handy field in the space of three strides and when he won here on Good Friday it was an exceptional win, he came from well back and I was really impressed with the way he won then.
“We saw something similar today.
“If he stays sound and in good order, and in a good frame of mind, a very good race is well within his keeping.”
The Busuttin-Young team trained the quinella in the Sale Cup, with Flash Aah returning to something like his best form in second place.
Flash Aah will now likely head to the $500,000 Ladbrokes Cranbourne Cup (1600m) on Saturday 12 November.
