Handy five-year-old gelding Step Aside ran out a ready winner of the Rosehill Bowling Club Handicap (1300m) on Saturday for trainer Chris Waller under a perfect Zac Lloyd ride as the young hoop showed his class with an early treble at Rosehill.
Lloyd rode the first three winners and had Step Aside perfectly poised behind the leaders Salisano and Lady Boss and comfortably overhauled them to score by just on two lengths.
The son of Redwood sports the colours of OTI Racing and has bounced back from an incident two starts back where Tommy Berry was dislodged after being crowded for room with Step Aside breaking through the running rail. He subsequently finished third behind Bunker Hut earlier this month.
“He came through that incident Scott-free fortunately,” Waller said.
“His next run was good. He probably peaked with 100m to go but today’s ride from Zac was brilliant. He utilized the good draw and just landed there (behind the leaders) and didn’t do any work and was able to have a good solid finish.
Waller admitted Step Aside is a bread and butter horse but said there was plenty of lucrative prizemoney as evidenced by the A$160,000 BenchMark 78.
“It tastes pretty good the bread and butter on Saturday in Sydney,” Waller said. “He has earned just over $80,000 for winning, which takes you a long way. If he can win another one, he has done a great job.”
Winning rider Zac Lloyd said the gelding filled him with confidence heading to the starting gates.
“I have never sat on him previously, but with the addition of blinkers today I was very happy with the horse cantering to the gates,” Lloyd said.
“I just kept him nice and happy as he doesn’t win out of turn. The race panned out well for him as he has a good turn of foot on him on his day and they went very steady.
“I needed a bit of luck as we straightened but I did and he won that race quite easily.”
By Redwood out of the winning Roc de Cambes mare Teena Rox, Step Aside began his career with Cambridge trainer Ralph Manning, winning an 800m trial on the Cambridge synthetic before his sale to OTI.
Step Aside has now won four of his 20 starts with a further eight placings and prizemoney of A$293,100.