Rupert smashes course record in Eagle Farm canter

JEFF Lloyd ominously predicted Winning Rupert “had a bit up the sleeve” winning first-up at Eagle Farm as the colt took a giant stride towards claiming the lucrative Summer Crown.

Over the line: Nathan Day drives Saga Miss to victory at Eagle Farm. Picture: Grant Peters, Trackside Photography

JEFF Lloyd ominously predicted Winning Rupert “had a bit up the sleeve” winning first-up at Eagle Farm as the Bjorn Baker-trained colt took a giant stride towards claiming the lucrative Summer Crown.

Baker has specifically set the unbeaten Winning Rupert for a tilt at the Queensland summer, where if a horse can win three out of four races in a designated series, a $500,000 bonus awaits.

You can’t see any of Sunday’s rivals troubling Winning Rupert, who had nearly six lengths to spare — eased down — over Crack Me Up in a course record-breaking 1min 9.42sec, off the back off a sizzling 33.71sec final sectional.

“I was trying to give him as easy a race as possible, but I gave him a little squeeze and he responded nicely,” Lloyd said.

“He has come on as we expected he would this season. As a two-year-old, he did a lot of things wrong in his races.

“Today he ran through the first furlong and a half (300m), but then came back to me nicely.

“He had a little bit more up the sleeve.”

Baker, who watched the race from Sydney, said a virus that went through his stable was the reason Winning Rupert ended up in Queensland, as opposed to tackling the Golden Rose.

“He got crook and though it was unfortunate at the time, it might turn out to be a blessing,” Baker said.

“We had already decided to go to the Magic Millions and then it was fortuitous to us when Racing Queensland announced the UBET Summer Crown.

“Suddenly, that becomes a really live option.

“He’s the quickest horse I’ve had anything to do with and he does it effortlessly.

“It’s not easy to win first-up 1200m at Eagle Farm and that’s why we gave him the three trials, but to think he’s run a track record is staggering.”

Like Lloyd, Baker has long admired Winning Rupert for what he achieved as a two-year-old.

“I remember saying in the winter that what he did was quite outstanding,” he said.

“To go to the Sunshine Coast and then back to Sydney and back north again to Doomben wasn’t easy. He was coming to the end of it by the Champagne, yet he still won.

“Everything since has been outstanding.”

Day job one not to Miss

WHAT started out as a return for “a bit of fun” has turned into a more serious career resurgence for one-time leading apprentice Nathan Day, who gave a faultless display on improving mare Saga Miss at Eagle Farm yesterday.

Saga Miss will now attempt to win her way to the rich Magic Millions day.

She will run next in a 2000m event before tackling the Shoot Out Handicap at Eagle Farm on December 31, a race which provides a wildcard entry into the Magic Millions Trophy (2200m).

“When mares are in form, you have to keep them going and I think she’s going to relish getting out over a bit further now,” co-trainer Will Hulbert said.

Day ended a near six-year break from racing at the Deagon Picnics in September 2014.

His career was all but finished when he fell from Iron Fist at the Gold Coast in 2009.

He very nearly broke his leg in half and it was pinned for 14 months and then needed another six months to heal.

That came at the end of the first phase of his career, which dealt him 20 broken bones, including three in his back.

Day then ventured into the business world and had three successful fast food restaurants.

He was urged back to trackwork by Alan Russell and Liam Birchley.

Initially, he had no ambition to return full-time to riding, but that soon changed and he feels at 43, he is riding better than ever.

Day was the leading apprentice in Brisbane racing in 1992-92, but said he now found riding much easier.

“It’s a different scenario when you’re mature to when you were a kid just wanting to have fun all the time,” he said.

“I find it comes a lot easier to me now and I think that definitely helps my riding.

“I go everywhere now chasing rides. Mitchell Speers is managing me now and I’ve set him a goal of getting me to 100 winners this season.”

Day rode 58 winners to be 13th on the Queensland jockey ladder last season, but has fired out of the blocks a lot quicker this term, with Saga Miss being his 32nd winner in four months, putting him seventh on the state ladder.

Saga Miss built on a big week for the father-son training partnership of Peter and Will Hulbert, making it four wins from her past five starts.

The Hulberts had won with Endless Puzzle and Cornrow earlier in the week.

“It’s an unbelievable run,” Will said.

“We have 10 in the stable at the moment and most of them are metropolitan standard, which is a good place to be.

‘‘We only have 12 boxes, so if they aren’t up to scratch we move them on.”

Originally published as Rupert smashes course record in Eagle Farm canter