HONEST galloper Floral Fever opened up a few new doors for his trainer Symon Wilde with his impressive victory in the $50,000 Colac Cup on Sunday.
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Floral Fever defeated Berisha and Ancient King and gave Wilde his first Colac Cup win in his own right but he had won the 2000 metre race on two other occasions when he trained in partnership with his dad Bill.
The Warrnambool based trainer said Floral Fever, who won the Camperdown Cup, two runs ago may now target the Stawell and Terang Cups over the next few months.
“It was a strong win seeing it was his first start over 2000 metres,” he said.
“I was confident he would run out a solid 2000 metres but you never know until you’ve run over the distance.
“We’ll probably head back to town for a race before looking at the Stawell Cup at Easter and the Terang Cup in April.
“I thought he would be hard to beat as he was on the minimum weight. He’s just an honest horse.”
Underrated jockey Jarrod Fry rode Floral Fever in his Camperdown and Colac Cup victories.
Floral Fever was the second leg of a winning double for Wilde.
His other winner on the eight race program was Purrfect Trick.
Whelan and Constant Force were the Wildes other Colac Cup winners.
Meanwhile, Warrnambool-trained stayer Gailo Chop will be set for the $1.5 million Australian Cup and may run at the Sydney Autumn Carnival after scoring victory in the $150,000 Carlyon Cup at Caulfield on Saturday.
Gailo Chop, who is trained at Darren Weir’s Warrnambool satellite stable defeated Harlem and Lord Fandango, at his first start since running unplaced in the Emirates Stakes at Flemington last November.
Weir’s Warrnambool foreman Jarrod McLean said Gailo Chop deserved the Carlyon Cup victory.
“It was a sensational effort,” McLean said.
“It’s only his second campaign for us and comes off the back of a win in the Caulfield Stakes last October. He ran in the Cox Plate and Emirates Stakes before having a break.
“He was tired at the end of that preparation but has come back into work in great shape. Weiry will now target Gailo Chop at the Australian Cup and then we may go to Sydney for a few of the feature races with him.”
Brave Smash, also trained from Weir’s Warrnambool stable ran third in the $500,000 C.F. Orr Stakes while stablemate Tosen Stardom had no luck in the 1400 metre race before being unplaced in the Group 1 event.
