Five-year-old gelding Shadow Crush (NZ) (Per Incanto) notched the seventh win of his career when coming with a scorching late run to claim victory in the Ranvet Sprint (1000m) at Randwick on Saturday.
The Mark Newnham-trained galloper got back to last under apprentice Tom Sherry and came with a devastating run out widest to win going away in a slick 56.62 seconds.
Shadow Crush had previously won at Randwick a fortnight ago over 1100m and Newnham praised the track managers with conditions improving to a Soft 5 after rain overnight.
“I know at three o’clock this morning when I heard the rain coming down I was only 50-50 as to whether to run him,” he said.
“But you get a little bit of sunshine and a little bit of wind and it is just the perfect surface at the moment.
“He needs good ground to do his best and running those sorts of times shows just what he can do when he gets the right conditions.
“He is a horse that has improved into his prep, as he has done in previous preparations, and I think now we have worked out what he enjoys.”
Bred by Bloomsbury Stud, Shadow Crush is a full brother to Per Inaway, who won the only race at New Plymouth on Saturday before the meeting was abandoned due to a slippery track.
Out of the winning Danasinga mare Inertia, a half-sister to Tavistock, Shadow Crush was pinhooked as a weanling by Woburn Farm out of Brighthill Farm’s 2017 Karaka May Sale draft for $90,000 before selling to Sweetbriar Equine at the Sydney Classic sale for A$330,000. – NZ Racing Desk
