In the clear: Black And Bent (Steve Pateman) goes for home after jumping the last in the $100,000 Galleywood Hurdle, 3200m, at Warrnambool yesterday. Picture: Warrnambool Standard
BLACK And Bent jumped his way into the record books in the $100,000 Galleywood Hurdle, 3200m, at Warrnambool yesterday.
His ninth successive jumps win equalled Lots Of Time’s record.
Black And Bent ($1.40) also continued Caulfield/Ballarat trainer Robert Smerdon’s domination of jumps events at the three-day carnival.
He has won all four jumps races on the opening two days, including a treble on Tuesday.
Smerdon will not get a chance to add to this run though, with his stable not represented in today’s $250,000 Grand Annual Steeplechase, 5500m.
Black And Bent won by 1¼ from the Darren Weir-trained Gotta Take Care ($7.50), which Smerdon has pre-race nominated as the main danger. Seeking The Silver ($41) was third.
Jockey Steve Pateman said Black And Bent had not won as easily as he usually did.
“He did it tough,” Pateman said.
“He had to make a long run and it made it look like he’d had enough, but I think if he had to pull out something extra he could have.
“He’s a real racehorse. He knows where the winning post is,” Victoria’s premier jumping jockey said.
Black And Bent has now won two Galleywoods, having won the race two years ago – the second victory in his nine-race winning sequence.
The gelding has won 12 of his 18 hurdle starts and over $640,000 prizemoney in jumps races.
“He’s a standout,” said Smerdon, who also won the Brierly Steeplechase on Tuesday with the promising Fareer.
“He covered the ground and did the work and I really rate the second horse (Gotta Take Care).”
Smerdon said the six-year-old would try to better the record of consecutive jumps wins in an open hurdle over 3300m at Mornington on May 20.
Smerdon rates Black And Bent as superior to former stable star Some Are Bent, which won 12 of his 25 jumps which netted him just over $950,000 prizemoney.
But he said Zabenz, the 2002 Grand National Hurdle winner who later won a Grade One steeplechase at Saratoga for Smerdon, was the best he’d had.
Smerdon has had five wins in two days at Warrnambool.
He followed Tuesday’s treble with a double yesterday.
Whitten Oval ($4.40) saluted in a three-year-old 0-68 handicap, 1400m, to give three wins in four lifetime starts.
Darren Weir’s Ballarat/Warrnambool stable has had four wins for the carnival, with Cosmic Demon ($7) yesterday adding to a treble on Tuesday.
Weir yesterday went within a breath of taking home the carnival trainers’ bonus of a Mercedes Benz.
He looked to have it in the bag when the heavily backed Wealth Princess ($4.60) hit the lead late in the $125,000 Wangoom Handicap, 1200m, but she was caught on the line by Second Effort ($3.50 favourite).
The bonus goes to any trainer who can train four winners at the carnival including either the Galleywood Hurdle, Wangoom, Grand Annual Steeplechase or Warrnambool Cup.
Weir has two more chances to snare the car, with Pay The Aces in the Grand Annual and the flying Magnifique Soleil in the Cup. Hurdy Gurdy Man is third emergency for the Cup and last night needed another scratching to get a start.
