GOULBURN jockey Richard Bensley capped off a hugely successful gold cup carnival with two more feature race triumphs yesterday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A day after capturing his third City Hcp on the Brett Cavanough-trained The Monstar, Bensley landed the Albury Guineas and Flat Knacker for the leading Albury stable.
Bensley had a low-key carnival last year after breaking his wrist two months beforehand.
But he has hit back hard the last two days with a second successive win on Loved Up after winning the Wagga heat of the rich country championships which culminates with the $300,000 final at Randwick next Saturday.
Corsica Lad completed the feature race trifecta for Bensley when the five-year-old emerged late to beat Rose Of Falvelon, who changed course in the last 100 metres to go down by long neck.
The 1.75 fav Quartzite wasn’t a factor in the finish after last year’s winner The Monstar and Fab Fevola were both scratched.
Corsica Lad clocked 51.97 seconds for the 900-metre dash.
“Brett is easy to ride for and tells you to go and do your thing,” Bensley said.
“The horses he trains are fit and healthy and they are bred to win.”
Cavanough said Corsica Lad had been nursed back to full fitness from knee problems midway through last year.
“He is probably the sharpest horse I’ve got in the stable,” he said.
“But we haven’t seen the best of him with his knees.
“He had some cartilage taken out and we never turned him out the paddock like they do.”
He won two starts ago at Canberra over 1000 metres, but didn’t measure up at 1200m at his next outing.
Corsica is owned by Richard Pegum, who followed the horse’s progress yesterday from Hong Kong.
“When they get beat I wish someone else was training them because he has got a pretty hot tongue,” Cavanough said.
Bensley previously won the City Hcp on Mukareena and Day Out.
ALBURY GOLD CUP COVERAGE
PHOTOS
NEWS REPORTS
FASHION
RACING