PAUL Theobald has been in the training game for a long time, but on Tuesday the Bathurst conditioner experienced a career first – four winners at one meeting.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It came at the Gosford Picnic Cup meeting, with Theobald not only taking out the feature race with Attilius, but enjoying success with Born To Power, Rise Me Up and Red Marauder as well.
“I’ve had a treble and ran third, I’ve never trained four winners before,” Theobald said.
“It was a picnic meeting, but don’t care where you go, try and do that anywhere, it’s really hard.
“It was really good, it lifted the stable, everyone was happy. It was four and a half hours there and four and a half hours back, so it made that trip worthwhile.
“I won the trainers’ premiership for the day too – I was level pegging into the cup, Attilius’ race, so I had to run in the first three in the cup to win it, that’s how close it was.”
READ ALSO: Impressive comeback from Mirfin’s Capitan
A six-year-old grey gelding by Murtajill out of She’s A Mountain, Attilius has been in handy form this season for Theobald.
He won the Young Picnic Cup in early October and backed that up with a win at Orange, those efforts seeing him backed into $2.30 favouritism for the Gosford Picnic Cup (1,200m).
Those who backed him were delighted as Alan Barton, who rode all four winners for Theobald, executed the trainer’s plan perfectly.
“He ran a beautiful race, I was amazed with Alan Barton,” Theobald said.
“Mollie Partridge was the jockey that won the Darley Tiara with All Sixes … she was on the horse that ran third.
“She came up to Attilius’ girth at the 300 and Alan just leaned over and said ‘Not today Molly, see ya’, he just left her.
“My tactics were this – all the other horses were sit and sprint horses, there were no on-pace horses. Well Attilius, he can be on pace or he can come from behind – he’s very versatile – so I said to Alan to put him up on the pace and see if they can run him down.
“They had to try and run him down and they couldn’t. So my tactics paid off.”
Attilius won by 3.16 lengths over Kate’s Pearl, the victory the seventh of his career.
Theobald was also impressed with Barton's ride aboard Red Marauder in the Maiden Plate (1,200m).
The $3.20 chance picked up his first career win in his 13th start.
“He was first start back from a spell and I was a bit worried about him. We were doing some work late on Monday afternoon to make sure he was right, I wasn’t happy with his action,” Theobald said.
“I told Alan that he’s a horse if you give him a little bit too much rein he’ll charge off, he’ll charge for 200-300 metres then he stops.
“But Alan is a very, very good horseman and he got him to travel underneath him so beautifully and he just kicked away in the straight.”
Just as Theobald enjoyed those two victories, so was taking out the opening race of the meeting – a Class B Handicap (1,600m) – with Born To Power ($3.50).
“The best part was Wayne Stephen’s horse Born To Power, Wayne and Craig Martin, they were over the moon with his run. That kicked us off,” Theobald said.
“All the punters were on us after the first win, they started to latch on, then after the second win they were really backing me in to favouritism.”
Keep up to date with the latest sports news by clicking here
