After a second-straight Victorian win with Not Usual Glorious (Fiorente), rising South Australian-trainer Travis Doudle is looking across the border for his next taste of success.
The five-year-old son of Fiorente led throughout to take out Saturday’s seventh race at Caulfield, a Benchmark 84 over 1700m in a now trademark gritty on-speed performance.
“He’s just got a great attitude, he never lies down, and he definitely showed that Saturday,” Doudle said.
“It was a very good win, he was nice and fresh going into it, he (Logan McNeil) rode him a treat too.”
Not Usual Glorious won the Aspley Cup the start prior, and Morphettville-based Doudle says the lure of chasing more Victorian Country Cup success is hard to bypass.
“He’s travelled home really well, I think we’ll have one more run in town over there and then start chasing the country cups over spring,” he said.
“We won the Aspley Cup with him last start over there, but that was the sort of country grade, he’s stepped up to the next level and the owners are going to have a hell of a lot of fun with him.
“There’s a couple of races at Moonee Valley in three weeks, we might be bringing him back over for that.
“He’s an ideal country cup horse around Victoria, and then there’s races here (SA), the Murray Bridge Cup, the Balaklava Cup and the John Lets Cup over that mile to 1800m distance range.
“He’s not a horse who loves going out to the paddock, he’s better off having little freshen ups and we keep him nice and healthy.
“It looks like he’s been up for a long time, and he has, but he just loves being in work.”
The consistent gelding has prominent owners involved, including reigning Brownlow Medalist and Port Adelaide midfield star Ollie Wines, as well as teammates Darcy Byrne-Jones and Tom Clurey, and former Power players John Butcher and Tom Rockliff.
“They got pretty lucky and got into him straight away, they were new clients when they came in and they’ve had an absolute ball,” Doudle said.
“They don’t get to the races as often as they like with their footy, but it’s been great.”
Not Usual Glorious has played an important flag flying role for Doudle’s emerging stable, which is beginning to build momentum.
“It’s been a real struggle with the quality of horse that I’ve had, and obviously you need to get results with them before you step up and get the nicer horses,” Doudle said.
“We’re probably 18-months off hitting our straps with these young ones we’ve got, a lot of the yearlings we got this year are lovely horses compared to years gone by.
“They’re starting to come through now, a lot more quality is hanging around the stable, the future looks really good.”
“Definitely good things coming I think.”
Not Usual Glorious was previously trained in New Zealand by Shane Crawford where he registered three wins from nine starts before Doudle sourced the stayer with help of New Zealand Bloodstock Managing Director Andrew Seabrook.
