The chance to secure Group 1 glory is on the cards for exciting 3YO colt Overpass (Vancouver) following his dominant first-up win in today’s G2 Expressway Stakes at Rosehill.
The Bjorn Baker-trained galloper was resuming after a luckless end to his spring campaign, which saw him make up enormous ground from the tail to finish closely behind Paulele in the G2 Roman Consul Stakes before never seeing daylight in Home Affairs’ G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes on Derby Day at Flemington.
But jockey Tim Clark took luck out of the equation today, taking Overpass straight to the front and he outsprinted G1 winner Forbidden Love and Champion 3YO Anamoe to score an impressive victory.
The win means Baker will now consider all autumn options for Overpass (pictured), a winner of four of his 10 starts and $350,000 in earnings.
“The Newmarket, the Inglis Sprint, races from 1200m-1600m, we’ll just have to have a massive look at everything now,’’ an elated Baker said.
“He’s an amazing horse who has always shown us a lot but just hasn’t had the right luck in the right races until today, I mean anyone who watched the Roman Consul and the Coolmore would know what I’m talking about.
“He’s obviously a really top class and powerful colt and I think he’s adaptable to do anything. He’s got such a versatile racing pattern in that he can sit midfield, he can settle at the tail or as he showed today, he can lead and show a turn of foot from the front and beat some of the best 3YOs in the country.
“You know what I love? I love training a Group 2 winner on the same day dad trained a Group 1 winner in New Zealand and I love a Group 2 winner on the eve of the Inglis Classic Sale, we’ll get to Riverside for inspections next week full of confidence and look to buy plenty more stars from a sale that is renowned for throwing good horse after good horse.’’
Inspections for the Classic Yearling Sale begin at Riverside on Tuesday.
To view the parade schedule, CLICK HERE.
To view the Classic catalogue, CLICK HERE.
Scott Darby of Darby Racing – who teamed up with Will Johnson to purchase Overpass for just $75,000 at the Easter Yearling Sale from his breeder Corumbene Stud - was similarly elated with today’s result.
“Everyone knows how unlucky he was last prep but we knew he was going super heading into this, we were pretty confident of a big run today but I guess you never really expect that you’re going to beat a horse like Anamoe,’’ Darby said.
“It’s so exciting because we knew that talent was there, we just hadn’t fully seen it yet before today but now that we have, it’s hard not to get excited about the future with a colt like him.’’
Today’s Rosehill card also saw two winners that had been sold through the Inglis Digital platform.
Rule Of Law (Snitzel) for Bjorn Baker made it four wins from as many starts since Jim Clarke purchased him for $30,000 from Newgate online in April last year.
Those four wins have netted connections $165,000 in earnings, a fabulous return on investment.
And Kempsey trainer Barry Ratcliff has a Country Championships contender on his hands with Markievicz (Starspangledbanner), a dominant winner of today’s TAB Highway Handicap.
Ratcliff bought Markievicz for just $8500 in last year’s June (Late) Online Sale – he’s now won his past three starts and earned almost $100,000 since.
Entries for the Inglis Digital February (Early) Online Sale are now open.
CLICK HERE to enter a horse.
