They might’ve missed out on playing finals footy, but there was some small tonic for a bunch of Port Adelaide players with South Australian galloper Not Usual Glorious (Fiorente) leading all the way to take out the Benalla Cup (2046m) on Friday.
2021 Brownlow medallist Ollie Wines, Tom Clurey and several other past and present Power players are in the ownership through their ‘Free Money Saturdays’ syndicate and have tasted metropolitan success already this preparation with wins at Caulfield and The Valley.
Neil Farley took control of the race and the six-year-old relished difficult conditions on a heavy 10 surface, staving off his rivals drawing away towards the line to eventually win by a length.
“Isn’t he a beauty?,” Doudle’s racing manager Stephen Theodore professed.
“He knows nothing but to go out and give his best, some tracks don’t suit, but when everyone was saying the amount of rain they’ve had it was music to our ears.
“Trav (Doudle) has done a fantastic job, he’s nursed him all the way through his grades and his rating, peaking him at this time of year with the wet tracks still hanging around. It’s going to be a big night!
“We’ve got the Moe Cup planned, 14th of October, we’ll take him home to South Australia, get him on the red wine and freshen his legs back up for the Moe Cup.”
The win brought up a double for Farley who also rode Not Usual Glorious to victory in the Apsley Cup held at Casterton in June.
“He’ so tough, he’s had a great campaign and there’s no signs of him jacking up so it’s great,” Farley said.
“I tried to stretch him from sort of the 800m, get them chasing, when he felt someone coming, he pinned his ears back, put his head down and away he went again.”
The Benalla Gold Cup was Not usual Glorious’ eleventh career win from 28 starts.
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.
