In Brief
- Gee Gee Fiorente defies alarming betting drift.
- Devonport Cup was always the main mission.
- Newhart loses no admirers with game second.
Gee Gee Fiorente may have raced himself into early favouritism for next month’s Ladbrokes Devonport Cup after scoring an impressive win in the $50,000 Sheffield Cup (1650m) in Devonport on Sunday.
The Team Wells-trained gelding won the Golden Mile leading up to Sunday’s assignment but despite that form he was an alarming drifter in the betting, easing from an opening price of $4.80 to start at $11.
“We have set this horse for the Devonport Cup and we weren’t going to run him in this race after winning the Golden Mile, but it was too big a break,” said Trent Wells.
“He’s done it easily in the end, so now he goes to the Devonport Cup with a lot of confidence.”
The gelding was ridden by former star West Australian apprentice Randy Tan who has become a regular rider in Tasmania in recent times.
“Randy (Tan) rode him a treat to win the Golden Mile and he’s done the job for us again today, so I would expect we will stay with him for the big race.”
The previously unbeaten Dark Wanderer ($5) led with Siggy Carr aboard and he set a solid tempo while last season’s Devonport Cup winner Newhart ($3.70F) was given the run of the race in the leader’s slipstream.
When Newhart’s rider Craig Newitt eased off the rails to challenge the Leanne Gaffney-trained gelding quickly strolled to the front and Newitt went for home.
The rider looked over his right shoulder looking for rivals and found nothing coming but Tan had taken Gee Gee Fiorente to the inside of thew leader and was out of view, so needless to say Newitt got a shock when the eventual winner appeared and raced past him close to home.
The 2021 Ladbrokes Devonport Cup will be run on 6 January with a crowd of up to 5,000 allowed to attend under expanded Covid-19 event attendance guidelines.
Watch Gee Gee Fiorente win the Sheffield Cup in Devonport on Sunday.