Grahame Begg and Jamie Mott have combined with the smart Royal Insignia to claim victory in the Group 3 Manfred Stakes at Sandown on Saturday afternoon.
First up off a two-month spell, the son of Written Tycoon drifted throughout the day from $4.80 and jumped at $7.50 with horse racing bookmakers in the seven-horse field.
Judicial ($8.50) jumped the best and took up the lead, ahead of the race favourite with PlayUp, Band Of Brothers ($4.00), while Tropicus ($5.50) and Another Prophet ($10.00) settled in behind the speed.
With very little changing throughout the 1200m journey, Mott worked his way to the outside before releasing the brakes at the 400m mark.
Band Of Brothers took over with 200m to go, but the runs were coming from midfield with Tropicus and Royal Insignia letting down strongly.
By the time they hit the 50m mark, Royal Insignia had claimed the race favourite and Tropicus before racing away in the shadows of the winning post to claim a stylish win.
Grahame Begg spoke about the win of Royal Insignia post-race.
“We’ve always had a lot of faith in this horse,” Begg said of the winner.
“I couldn’t believe it. I took him to Bendigo for his first start in a race, and he got it all wrong that day and got beaten about eight lengths.
“We turned him out, and he came back for a couple of runs in the late part of the spring, but he’s just gone to another level, this horse.
“He’s a pretty exciting horse, very unassuming, travels beautifully in his race; he wants to relax and find the line.
“The small field probably helped him a little bit, but he (Jamie Mott) gave him a great ride and it’s a great result, onwards and upaward.
“He will go to the C.S. Hayes next start and head to the Guineas.”
Jamie Mott recorded his second win of the day at Sandown, and he spoke post-race.
“I said to Grahame, ‘he’s won at Kyneton and at the Caulfield Heath, so I think he will be fine with Sandown and he will probably really enjoy it,” Mott said.
“Beautiful animal. He’s taken nice progression from last preparation to this.
“His first two wins, I left him alone early, and he struggled to travel comfortable, but he was good enough to win. Today he jumped and wanted to be in the race, that just shows his confidence and maturity he’s got from his last prep.
“Grahame has got a really nice horse on his hands.”
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