Manor Road recorded a win for Gunnedah horse trainer Gavin Groth in last Saturday’s race meet at Tamworth.
The equal-seventh favourite in a field of 14, Manor Road won the 1600m race by 1.9 lengths after being in fifth place at the halfway stage on a track rated a Good 4.
It was Manor Road’s fourth start for Groth, following a 44-week spell although a lot of work had been done for a few months during that time-frame.
Groth said the gelding needed to be managed, and that it “makes it all the more pleasing when they win, with all the work that goes into it”.
Groth also said it was a bit more pleasing to win when the odds were against the horse.
Manor Road had had placings of fifth, second and ninth in the lead-up to last Saturday’s races, with the trainer saying the gelding had been pretty good and had been consistent.
“The day he ran ninth at Gunnedah, he was drawn wide, ran wide and got stuck out wide,” Groth said.
“He had been racing in really good company.”
Although Manor Road also had a wide gate last weekend, Groth said it didn’t bother him too much as the distance was 1600m after the race at Gunnedah was 2150m.
“He’s a distance horse,” Groth said.
Groth rated jockey Jake Pracey-Holmes’s ride a 10 out of 10 last Saturday, as the plan was to go forward and not hold back.
Groth also had four other runners at Tamworth, with Skipton Farm coming last in a field of 10 before Powerstone came sixth out of 10.
Following Manor Road’s triumph, Injair placed fourth out of 11 before La Mia Via came third out of 11 while being just 0.3 of a length behind the winner.
Groth said he thought Injair and La Mia Via did well as they were forced to race wide, while Powerstone had its first run for more than five months.
Groth is set to have six runners at Walcha this Friday and Saturday, including Manor Road, La Mia Via and Powerstone.
Manor Road will return to its home track, with Groth saying hopefully this will “spark his memory”.
“He’ll know where he is when he gets there,” Groth said.
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