JUST one week after arriving at his new base in Ballarat, horse trainer Dominic Sutton has picked up his first city winner with colt Feroce winning at Caulfield on Saturday.
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Already the first horse to win a race for the 28-year-old trainer, when the horse won its maiden at Pakenham on March 21, the two-year-old made it two-from-two with a strong win over 1200m.
It was an impressive win for the $160,00 strapping colt which sat second in running before kicking hard on the home and doing enough to comfortably hold off his chasers.
"It's hard to put into words," Sutton told racing.com after the race. "It's pretty surreal and even more special that I have my father (Nick) over here from the UK."
"We are up to 11 in work. We've got about 20 on the books and really looking to grow at a nice steady rate.
"I made the move on Easter Sunday, (this is) the first runner out of the barn, so hope it continues."
It may be Sutton's first win on a city track but it's far from the first win for the colours
"They are my old man's colours," Sutton said. "My family is very much into national hunt racing in the UK, and he's got a big team of national hunt jumps horses and actually my brother is a jockey and he rides most of them and they had a couple of winners last week, so those colours are in form.
Feroce is the son of Super Seth, a rising star sire.
"You've got to (take the gamble) when you like a nice horse. We wanted to get some quality into the stable straight away and he's that type of horse.
"(His run) was impressive, Robbie Laing's horse (Invincible Beau) kicked up on the inside there and just made us take our time to come across.
"But I loved the way that he dropped his head and settle once Billy (Egan) asked him to come back.
"He is still quite a raw horse In track work he has a tendency to switch off in his gallops, so I think there is a lot if improvement still to come once he really learns to it the line strong."
Meanwhile, it was a case of near but not quite there for number of other Miners Rest-based trainers who weren't able to add to the group winning tally.
The Mitch Freedman Toorak Handicap winner Attrition was unsighted finishing near the tail of the group three Victoria Handicap over 1400m, while the Dan O'Sullivan-trained Berkerley Square was fifth in the group three Easter Cup over 2000m.
Ciaron Maher's Nugget finished fourth in the group one Doncaster Mile in Sydney with stablemate Detonator Jack finishing sixth.
