Williamsburg ($10) has slogged it out under the experienced hands of Kerrin McEvoy to take out the Group 3 Schweppervescence two-year-old Quality at Rosehill Gardens in pouring rain for Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou.
Moko ($12) was his only competition in the final stages just 0.16 lengths away second with Matcha Latte ($7.50) 4.49 lengths third.
The two-year-olds struggled in the atrocious conditions with the field stretched out 68.5 lengths at the line and Williamsburg's stablemate Boyfriend ($7.50) pulled out of the race by Brenton Avdulla before the straight.
“He's OK. Brenton (Avdulla) just said he started to hang a bit and the more he fought him, the worse he got. He said I just had to retire him out of the race he was hanging that bad.” Said co-trainer Alexiou.
A son of Snitzel, Williamsburg won his maiden at his second start at Newcastle over 1300m on February 24 before going on to run a nice fourth in the Group 3 Pago Pago (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens two weeks ago.
Settling in the middle of the pack, Williamsburg got a clear run at the top of the straight and made good ground in the heavy conditions. Moko, ridden by Tommy Berry, was hot on his outside heels but was unable to get past the winner.
“He's got a pretty stout pedigree and he has shown his liking for the wet tracks. He looked the winner about 300m out but he had to sustain a bit of a slog with one to the line. It's good for him to get a win.” Alexiou said.
“He's copped his racing very well on these wet tracks so I would be surprised if he didn't come through it well
“As long as he comes through today well, he will probably back-up in the Sires' next week. That was always the plan, that's why Brenton rode the other one. Obviously, he was committed to (Gary) Portelli's (Golden Slipper winner Fireburn) next week and that was always the plan with him, that Kerrin(McEvoy) would ride being a jockey that might be able to ride him next week.”
McEvoy praised the colt's efforts on the heavy 10 track and less than ideal conditions,
“Bloody hard work. (I was) taking the big ones at the 600m knowing that we're going to need it. But full credit to my horse, it's very waterlogged now. He wasn't loving it but his ability got him through it and he tried hard all the way to the line. He's a lovely horse for the future.”
When questioned on whether he had ridden in worse conditions,
“I don't reckon I have, it's a Group 1 day so hopefully we can get through. But we'd just like this (the rain) to bugger off because there's going to be a lot of lying water there now. So you're going to need to have a nice smooth run in transit and obviously handle wet ground, which speaks for itself.” said McEvoy.