Bad barriers have thwarted I’ve Bean Tryin’ this preparation and while his run of outside alleys continued at Randwick, he was finally able to overcome it.
The gelding jumped from gate 13 of 14 in the $250,000 Barn Dance (1300m) on Tuesday and after settling with the backmarkers, Jason Collett brought him with a storming finish to nab Cavalier Charles by a half-neck in the final bound.
“I needed every yard of the 1300 there,” Collett said.
“I couldn’t quite travel comfortably through the middle section, I had to let Cavalier Charles pop and go mid-race and just bank that he’d get him late and thankfully he did.”
I’ve Bean Tryin’ ($5.50), who finished third in this years’ Country Championships Final (1400m), arrived at Tuesday’s race off a fifth to Front Page in the Kosciuszko (1200m) where he was forced to go well back from an outside draw.
Kelley said the horse’s run of wide gates had been frustrating and he was relieved to see him turn things around.
“We just get so upset with these barriers all the time, he keeps drawing the carpark,” Kelley said.
“Sometimes he just runs out of distance in the race and today was kind of in the same boat but we had Jason (Collett) on, he’s got a good feel for the horse and he’s a bloody good jockey.”
The Barn Dance is Kelley’s most significant win since taking out his trainers’ licence a couple of years ago.
Later in the day, the Jason Deamer-trained Hard To Say ($11) extended his winning streak to four in the Choisir Handicap (1100m), giving jockey Ashley Morgan a rare win in town.
The four-year-old had taken out a Sydney Midway in August before landing back-to-back victories in Brisbane and Deamer felt it was the right time to roll the dice in harder grade.
“We thought we’d have a crack,” Deamer said.
“The horse is flying, no weight on his back and Ashley Morgan was prepared to lose a little bit of weight to stick with him so it all worked out very well.”