RACING
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TWO days after his son Justin trumped him in the Soldier’s Saddle on his home turf, Bathurst trainer Peter Stanley made the trip to Dubbo and walked away with a winning double.
Justin Stanley had Prattler win the prestigious ANZAC Day feature but on Monday was his father’s turn, with Mulberry Moon saluting at $18 early in the program before his bargain buy King Derota was victorious in the Dubbo RSL Events Centre Benchmark 70 Handicap (1, 200 metres).
A $400 purchase from a tried horse sale, King Derota has now won six races from 15 starts and with six placings thrown in as well, has earned almost $70,000 in prize money.
“He’s just a trier this horse, he always puts in,” Stanley said after the race.
“I don’t do much with him between runs and it keeps enough in his legs for his races. The great Jack Denham tough me that.
“Justin had a good win on Saturday. He just beat me in the saddle, but that was like a win for me as well so it has been a good weekend for our family.”
With Mick Travers in the saddle, King Derota ($4.60) settled just off the speed set by Stargrill Boy ($7, Adam Sewell) and Perfect Cadence ($9, Leanne Henry) before producing in the straight and wearing down Perfect Cadence by a long neck.
Kinetics ($8.50, Jamie Gibbons) ran on well from the back of the field to grab third, beaten by a further three quarters of a length, with the run full of merit as he drifted from the outside of the field back to the inside fence in the straight.
The favourite in the race, Chrysolaus ($3, Glenn Lynch) also finished well from the back to run fourth.
Stanley had little luck with King Derota during the recent Country Championships series, with the five-year-old scratched at the barrier of the Bathurst heat before putting in an uncharacteristic bad run in the wildcard race at Muswellbrook.
“That series just didn’t pan out for him,” Stanley said.
“He missed the run in the Bathurst race and then I had to wait until all the other heats were run before that wildcard race came up. He was too fresh and led them up, but was the first horse beaten.
“I came here today pretty confident that I had him right and Mick rode him well. Mick always rides him well and it’s a good reward for him because he’s a good rider and a good bloke as well.”
Earlier Mulberry Moon had given Stanley his first win for the day, backing up a dominant win at picnic level with her first success at TAB level.
“I was confident with her too. She ran a good race her three runs ago and then went no good at Wellington, but we took her to Grenfell for a kill,” Stanley said.
“She got a lot of confidence from that win and she’d been working okay, so I backed her and I backed up with some of those winnings and had a few dollars on King Derota as well.”