The patience of Cliff Brown has been rewarded with Place Of Gold providing the trainer with a debut win at Mornington.
A two-time trial winner at Cranbourne in August, Brown could have pressed the button then and given the son of Turffontein a start during the spring.
But the Mornington-based horseman elected to give the three-year-old a break and bring him back and start off his career in The Big Screen Company Maiden Plate (1200m) on Wednesday.
In what punters thought was a two-horse race, Place Of Gold ($2.35) was well handled by Ethan Brown to register a 1-½ length win from the $2.15 favourite Keppel Bay with Sally Sunshine ($10) the same margin off third.
A $60,000 yearling purchase at the 2020 Melbourne Premier Sale, Place Of Gold will continue to improve with racing according to stable spokesman Tony Lane.
“That is a really good way to kick off his career,” Lane told racing.com.
“And kudos to Ethan for a good ride.
“He had trialled up really well and we were very happy with the way he had been going. We were pretty confident that he would run really well.
“But there’s plenty of improvement to come. He’s still pretty green and new to everything, so he’ll improve with racing.”
Ethan Brown said there was plenty of merit in the victory and said Place Of Gold was a nice horse going places.
“He jumped with them but there was a bit of pressure early, so I elected to come back,” Brown said.
“We had cover for half the race but here at Mornington I don’t think it’s that big a deal if you’re caught exposed a bit.
“He was able to slide into it when the pace came out of the race, and he was strong through the line.”