General News
5 November, 2020
Robe Bay wins Mortlake Cup
A PATIENT ride from Jack Hill saw Robe Bay collect Stawell trainer Dane Smith’s first $25,000 Bet 365 Mortlake Cup on Sunday.
A PATIENT ride from Jack Hill saw Robe Bay collect Stawell trainer Dane Smith’s first $25,000 Bet 365 Mortlake Cup on Sunday.
The four year-old mare was too strong for her rivals in the Mortlake Racing Club’s feature race, breaking the track record in the process as she claimed a one length win over Nordic Symphony.
The victory added to Smith’s growing collection of country cups, following previous wins in the Colac, Penshurst, Avoca and Edenhope cups.
“We always target our horses for the country cups and it was good to get another one,” Smith said.
“We’ve won a few over the last couple of years, we’ve had a bit of luck with them recently which is good but to add Mortlake was terrific.
“With the hot pace early we were happy to settle back and then coming into the straight Jack rode into a wall of horses but he was able to get a good split and then accelerate through them.
“It was a good ride by Jack Hill.”
Smith has had the daughter of Atomic since early this year after former trainer Peter Hardacre and owner Graeme Savage sent her across from Mount Gambier.
The trainer said he was thankful to the pair for entrusting him with the lightly-raced galloper.
“We’ve always had a fair opinion of her,” Smith said.
“Peter Hardacre sent her over because she has trouble with the barriers but we’re rectifying that at the moment which has been good.
“She had a couple of runs in the Melbourne Cup Carnival qualifiers which were good but they were just too short for her.
“We’ll look to head to the Dunkeld Cup in a fortnight then I’ll talk to the owners and come up with a bit of a plan after that.”
While crowds were unable to attend the meeting, Smith said those in attendance still enjoyed a good day of racing at Mortlake.
“It’s always a good day at Mortlake,” he said.
“It’s probably disappointing for them with the COVID that they couldn’t have a crowd because normally they get the football and netball clubs and the like having their break-ups there.
“It’s probably disappointing for them in that sense but other than that it was terrific.
“It was a lovely day with beautiful weather.”
