Former top jockey Jodi Snell has endured a frustrating run as a part-owner of Cuprona Road but her luck finally changed at Spreyton on Sunday.
At his ninth run after a long, injury-enforced layoff, Cuprona Road broke through for his third career win in the Benchmark 62 Handicap.
The five-year-old gelding, ridden by top jockey Brendon McCoull, finished strongly to comfortably account for Just Mouse and Guru Rez.
Cuprona Road had been runner-up at three of his previous four starts, twice beaten in photo-finishes.
When he went down by a nose to Difrent at Spreyton on May 17, almost everybody on course thought that he had won.
That included McCoull, who was so confident he had got the money that he returned to scale without looking at the semaphore board.
The jockey raised his whip in a victory salute as he entered the mounting, before being informed he had actually finished second.
Snell races Cuprona Road in partnership with her father Keith and his wife Cecilia.
After retiring as a jockey to start a family, Snell had a brief stint as a trainer and Cuprona was her first winner at Mowbray in January 2013.
She won another race with the gelding in August that year but not long after he was injured and required a long spell.
Leon Wells took over the training of Cuprona Road at the start of his current preparation and, despite being a little frustrated by the gelding’s run of minor placings, has been pleased with his progress.
“He was out for 12 months before I got him due to a paddock accident,’’ the trainer said.
“He got his nearside joint caught in a gate.
“Since he’s been back, he’s matured a lot and it’s now easier to keep a bit of condition on him.
“He failed at his first start for me, but it was on a wet track in Hobart, and since then he’s been very consistent.
“He had the race to suit (on Sunday) with the pace on, but he got the job done well and he could go on with it now.’’
By Greg Mansfield (Examiner)
Related links:
- Watch the replay on Tasracing.com.au
- Race results
- News: Hayley wins again
- News: Raquel wins on debut