Lindsay Park & Ethan Brown have combined with Joyful Fortune ($23) to claim the Listed Bob Hoysted Handicap (1000m) at Flemington on Saturday afternoon, giving the lightly raced eight-year-old his fifth win at start 13.
The son of Nicconi boasts a formidable record when fit and firing, which hadn’t been the case of late, finishing last amongst the field of 10 in the Group 1 Lightning Stakes (1000m) at the same course and distance on February 15.
A five-week freshen to go along with a significant drop in grade seemingly did the trick on Saturday, with the Joyful Fortune surging onto the leaders’ back from barrier two as Midwest ($7.50) led them up at a solid clip throughout the journey.
The heavily backed favourite with horse racing bookmakers, Pisanello ($3.20), never travelled kindly under the urging of Jamie Melham and was one of the first horses beaten when approaching the clock tower, while Major Share () peeled to the middle of the course to get the last crack in the final furlong.
Spacewalk () and Sans Doute ($11) were making some inroads late; however, they simply couldn’t reel in the margin as Joyful Fortune powered to the lead, fending off Major Share in the shadows of the post to secure a relatively dominant win.
Co-trained Will Hayes was on course to break down the win.
“His straight form is impeccable,” said Hayes.
“He’s a highly-talented galloper, it’s just an incredible team effort.
“The team is working together. It started with the team at Euroa getting him right. John Russell and our assistant trainer Sarah Fannin have put so much work into this horse and to get him on raceday is really special.
“We really didn’t want to have him so far between runs off the back of the Lightning because he did pull up really good, that’s just the way the program panned out.
“We just kept him ticking along. We’ve got a routine that works for him. We did a trial away this time and just gave him the simulation of a raceday experience and that seems to have done the trick, he just ran enormous.”
Ethan Brown then spoke post-race.
“He’s got a lot of ability,” said Brown.
“He’s got a terrific third up record too. The boys were confident they had him nice and sound and they were spot on.
“He got a lovely suck run on what was a pretty genuine tempo and when I produced him I felt the winner a long way out.
“When he hit the front he did wander a bit, but he soon picked up and was really strong through the line.”
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