A $1000 bargain buy has given Bendigo trainer Nick Smart the thrill-of-a-lifetime with a gutsy win in the $135,000 Scotty Stewart Brierly Steeplechase (3450m).
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Turning for home, the Warrnambool-trained I'll'Ave'Alf (Shane Jackson) looked the winner but faltered on his run and $13.50 elect Getting Leggie (Clayton Douglas) ground his way out to the finish line, scoring from the Eric Musgrove-trained Lucques ($19.50, Aaron Lynch) with I'll'Ave'Alf third.
Underrated trainer Nick Smart was over the moon after the win which came in front of empty stands due to coronavirus restrictions.
"To a couple of the boys, you were wrong," he said.
"We were going for the Grand Annual but got a wet track and we came back to this race.
"I love him, he's just tough and he can jump.
"It's a little bit bittersweet. Can we put this on layby so we can go to The Whalers?."
Smart said the Getting Leggie was a $1000 buy at the Adelaide Yearling Sales and he'd had him throughout his 38-race career.
He'd won just four races before the Brierly and his prizemoney lept by $73,000 to about $200,000.
"There's a heap of mates in this horse and a few of them gave me a bit of grief," he said.
"That's stuck it up a couple of them and I love the rest of them."
The trainer described the ride by Douglas as exceptional.
"He's a champion. What a great ride," he said.
"I only got Clayton after acceptances. I was stuck without a rider for a while. He gave him a peach of a ride."
For Douglas it was his first Brierly after success in the 2018 Grand Annual on Warrnambool jumper Gold Medals.
The Brierly started in sensational fashion at just the second obstacle when young jumps jockey Billy Gleeson was dislodged from the Eric Musgrove-trained Zataglio after landing awkwardly.
Warrnambool jumper He's A Genius (Tom Ryan) landed on Gleeson, which brought He's A Genius to ground.
Zataglio continued in the 3450m race causing havoc to other horses and riders through on the course proper, into Brierly Paddock and then Granter's Paddock.
He crashed through two jump wings but appeared uninjured.
Gleeson was conveyed to the hospital with a suspected broken leg. Ryan was not seriously injured.
Both horses were OK.
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