Rush of excitement builds for trainer Robinson

TRAINER Jarrod Robinson sees plenty of potential in his two-year-old Rich Running and is hoping to get a nice glimpse of it in the $250,000 VOBIS Gold Rush (1100m) at Bendigo this Saturday.

The gelded son of Rich Enuff will be the only local-trained starter in the premier two-year-old race on Golden Mile race day.

Rich Running will be making only his second career start, having finished second on debut at Echuca in mid-April behind the impressive Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained juvenile Mull Of Kintyre.

While there will be no Mull Of Kintyre on Saturday, there will be no shortage of other class youngsters to contend with in the race, won the last two years by Team Hayes with Bold Bastille and Killiana.

Robinson, whose 69 career victories are highlighted by four city wins, said Rich Running had progressed nicely since his Echuca debut.

“He seems to have come through it well,” he said.

“I nearly wasn’t going to run him up there (at Echuca) because he drew so badly, but the trials were called off at Kyneton and it didn’t fit in to trial him again anywhere, so we threw him and hoped for the best.

“But he overcame the wide barrier pretty quickly and showed plenty of toe, which is handy to have.”

 

The tilt at the Gold Rush has been 12 months in the making for Robinson and the gelding’s ownership group, led by Echuca’s Steve Hurrey.

“They have raced a few horses out of the mare (Kilts) … more of them staying horses,” he said.

“Steve Hurrey, who fixes boats up in Echuca, bred him.

“He sent him to us and we have had him for about a year.

“A soon as he got here, I pencilled his race in. He looked like a good early two-year-old running type.

“A few days to go and we are still on track to get him there.”

A Gold Rush win would cap a reversal of fortunes, admits Robinson, who has 15 horses in his stable, located at the back of the Bendigo racecourse, the bulk of them unraced.

He has trained only two winners this season, albeit from fewer than normal trips to the races, but he can find a silver lining in four seconds from his last six starters.

“Hopefully that means I’m getting closer. I’ve been struggling a bit of late … a few placings, just no winners,” he said.

“Most of my horses at the moment are young ones; there’s only a few that have been racing lately.

“That’s been a change for me. I decided to start buying more yearlings instead of training tried horses.

“It obviously takes time for them to get them to the races, but I’m prepared to be patient.”

Feature races often produce fairytale stories and the Gold Rush is no exception.

Fellow local trainer Danny Curran’s victory in the race in 2015 with the aptly-named The Big Dance is part of Bendigo racing folklore.

Purchased by Curran for a mere $750, the filly blitzed the field – much to the delight of locals – to claim the first prize of $150,000 plus $23,000 in bonuses.

“She went through the ring at 10 in the morning. Nobody was there,” said Curran in 2015, reflecting in on his good fortune.

“That’s just how it is. Sometimes you get lucky.”

Starting the race at odds of $10, she was backed in from $61 midweek.

On Saturday, Robinson will dare to dream of his own Gold Rush fairytale with the horse he cautiously rates as the pick of his current young crop.

“You wouldn’t think so the way he gets around here at home, but he is fast,” he said.But I have nothing else in the stable aimed at the race like this.