By David Nagel
Victorian racing’s power shift to the South East suburbs of Melbourne continued at Sandown Park Hillside on Saturday with seven of the nine winners being trained at Cranbourne or Pakenham.
Cranbourne’s Melbourne Cup winning team of Ciaron Maher and David Eustace landed a double with Detonator Jack and Right You Are, while Cranbourne stalwart Robbie Griffiths was on track to see exciting two-year-old filly Serasana make an impressive racetrack debut.
The beautifully bred daughter of Snitzel/Twilight Royale – who cost $400,000 at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sales – could hardly have been more impressive.
Serasana sat just off a hot speed before jockey Dean Yendall opened her up and she galloped away in the straight for a three-length victory over the 1000-metre trip.
Griffiths and his training partner Matt de Kock – who is currently in his homeland of South Africa getting married – will now freshen the filly before returning to Sandown for the rich Blue Diamond series early in the new year.
“She delivered today,” Griffiths said post-race.
“She’s a quality filly, she kicked off her career the right way.
“One thing Dean (Yendall) and I said before the race was the best part about her will be the conclusion of the race, she’s very strong at the completion of anything she’s done in her education.”
Serasana is bred in the purple, by winning-machine Snitzel out of a mare that won the Group 2 VRC Sires Stakes as a two-year-old.
Griffiths agreed that the $400,000 purchase now looked a bargain buy with bigger targets on the horizon.
“She’s (Serasana) got a lot of substance behind her, both in genetics and on talent, there’s a lot ahead of her,” he said.
“Possibly the (Blue Diamond) Preludes, we’ll see how she comes through, we won’t jump ahead of ourselves in planning, but it will be something pretty big.”
Pakenham trainers also had a big day at the office with gun-trainer Peter Moody scoring a winning double, with Life Lessons and Sigh, while Phillip Stokes prepared Savannah Cloud to win race eight on the nine-race program.
But it was the win of eight-year-old gelding Never Again that held most prominence, continuing the rise of up-and-coming Pakenham trainer Reece Goodwin.
The former picnic-jockey, the son of well-respected trainer Barry Goodwin, only secured his ticket in the early stages of this year.
Goodwin has mainly purchased tried horses to this point in time, but looks set for a very bright future in the sport.
Goodwin learnt his craft from spending time at some prominent overseas stables before working with his dad for two years.
The weekend provided a great guide to Goodwin’s future prospects, with Never Again becoming his first metropolitan winner and becoming the second-leg of a weekend double after Sarnia scored at Cranbourne on Friday night.
Never Again was formerly trained by Clinton McDonald, and showed enough class to win the Listed Chester Manifold Stakes at Flemington in January 2021.
Racing returns to Sandown lakeside this Wednesday 14 December.
