Reluctant visitor Damian Browne dominates Ipswich with back-to-back feature-race wins
JOCKEY Damian Browne’s double success on the Ipswich’s biggest race day won’t coax him into making more trips south.
DAMIAN Browne was again the toast of the town as he made his annual visit to Ipswich on Saturday, but the jockey’s success on the city’s biggest day won’t coax him into making more trips south.
The Sunshine Coast-based jockey doesn’t take rides at Ipswich, but made an exception on Cup Day last year, breaking a three-year drought, and landed a winning treble, including the Eye Liner Stakes.
Returning for the first time since, Browne landed the Cup-Eye Liner double on Saturday, again confirming his affinity with the tight circuit. But his repeat successes won’t be enough to see him taking midweek rides any time soon at the venue.
“Well, it seems to be working what I’m doing. I wouldn’t want to change a good thing,” he said. “I’ll get in the car tonight, look in the rear vision mirror and say ‘see you again in another 12 months’.”
Browne was expected to land the cash with hot favourite Maurus in the Cup, but Ninth Legion was a trickier conveyance, having not won for more than 500 days. The jockey had him in the box seat from the get-go and he was too good.
Browne admitted last week it had been a lean carnival for him and he was pleased to chime in at the back end again.
“Small fish are sweet. It’s great to be able to win the two big ones,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting on the right horses.
“In the Cup, Maurus looked a good thing and that’s the way it panned out and with Ninth Legion, he was going to be hard to beat if he could bring his A-Game.
“I thought he looked a bit similar to Smokin’ Joe, who I won the Eye Liner on last year. He was the best horse in the race and it was just a matter of him turning up.”
Browne told trainer Peter Robl that Ninth Legion wasn’t too sure about putting his head down at the top of the straight when the race was there for the taking.
“He had a think on the corner. He was going to win easily, but fortunately he kept going,” he said.
Robl heaped praise on Browne’s ride after admitting he had serious concerns about the state of the track given Ninth Legion’s disliking for any kind of wet ground.
“He’s had 12 starts on slow and heavy ground for nothing so it was definitely a worry when it was racing like a Soft 6,” Robl said.
“But good jockeys can get horses to travel through bad ground and that’s what Damian did.
“They say winning is a habit and I think not winning can also become a habit so it’s great to see him stick his head out today.”
Originally published as Reluctant visitor Damian Browne dominates Ipswich with back-to-back feature-race wins
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