Improving three-year-old Garnacho (NZ) (Ace High) scored a last-stride victory in the Howden Australian Guineas Day, 1 March (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday for trainers Emma-Lee and David Browne.
Ridden by Damian Lane, the gelded son of Ace High sat just off a solid early speed and despite still doing a few things wrong, wore down runner-up Zorro’s Flight (Toronado).
Garnacho has now won two of his four starts and looks like a three-year-old that will relish getting over further ground.
David Browne admitted he was concerned watching early in the run and delighted by the gritty victory.
“I thought he did enough early. He pulled hard and didn’t settle quite as quickly as you’d like for the first 400m,” Browne said.
“I thought we were probably beaten and he’d run a good race but not settling would take its toll, but he was super tough to win.
“He’s a horse with a lot of ability but he wants to do a lot wrong. He has come a huge way over the last three or four months. He has really tidied up in his attitude.
“We’ll just keep it low-key for the moment and see how he comes through the run before we make too many plans, but I think he’s the sort of horse that we might be able to stretch him out by a couple of hundred metres this preparation and we will just see where we end up.”
Winning rider Damian Lane said he wasn’t sure if he had defeated Zorro’s Flight on the line, but there was more to come from Garnacho as his racing manners improved.
“He’s taken a little bit to come to hand and for the penny to drop and he still did a little bit wrong through the early part of the race today, so that’s a sign that there is some improvement still to come,” Lane said. “He is a work in progress, but he’s obviously got some talent.
“He just has a tendency to want to overdo it a little bit and he wants to get on one rein. Today early out of the barriers he got bumped by both sides and it just fired him up and got him on the wrong foot from the start, so if he can get back to relaxing like he did at his previous runs out at this sort of distance, he’s going to have a really good turn of foot.”
By Rich Hill Stud stallion Ace High out of the three-win One Cool Cat mare Aplomb (NZ), Garnacho is a half-brother to three other winners including handy mare Monfelicity (NZ) (Vadamos).
Bred by Terry Woodman, who remains in the ownership of Garnacho, Aplomb is back in foal to dual Group One winner Ace High, who is represented by 23 yearlings at the forthcoming New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sales.