GREG Bennett predicts a bright future for French galloper You Are Golden after her impressive debut at Scone on Saturday.
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The four-year-old bay mare was not only having her first run in Australia but her first in 14 months when she scored a length and a half win in the Segenhoe Stud Maiden Plate (1300m) from Secret Web.
“She won well,” Scone-based Bennett said.
“I’ve had her three and half months now.
“She raced in France as a two-year-old and had four starts but hasn’t had a run in more than a year.
“So that was a pretty good effort to get her up and going.
“And there was a lot to like about the win too.
“She’s a well bred, beautiful mare.
“She drew wide and had to be used up early to get across and then she was strong at the finish.”
At this stage he doesn’t have any concrete plans for her.
“We’ll just go through her grades with her, probably over 1400m again next start,” he said after Saturday’s win.
That now appears to be a 1400m no metro wins race at Warwick Farm on January 7.
“We’ll take her straight down to town,” he said yesterday, after a couple of days to ponder the calendar.
“She did pull up a treat and the way she won it’s worth- while giving her a crack.”
It was a welcome success for the Scone trainer who had a frustrating day on his home track.
“We were hard done by with Pompidou,” he said of a mare who had nowhere to go when sixth to Electric Power in the feature Summertime Cup.
“Savvy Girl got poleaxed too.
“I had a couple that ran nice races and a couple that were disappointing and probably go to the paddock.”
Bennett was also considering running Howdiddydoit in Thursday’s $30,000 Fencing North West Inverell Cup (1400m) after the seven-year-old chestnut gelding finished fifth to Monashee Woods in the 1300m Christmas Cup at Scone on December 12.
He was beaten only one and a half lengths at Scone at his 47th start. The winner of seven races has accumulated $167,187 in prizemoney however he will bypass the Inverell Cup with his gelding and head to Warwick Farm instead.
“It all became too hard to get him up there,” Bennett said of an Inverell Cup start.
“There isn’t another horse from here going up and I’m going to Randwick with In Vienna and Pro Consul.
“I haven’t been to Inverell for a while too. I won a race up there a couple of years ago with Manipulated.”
Bennett is enjoying another good run and You Are Golden’s win at Scone last Saturday was his 16th of the HNWRA season and placed him fourth behind Luke Griffith (24), Paul Perry (21) and Sue Grills (19).
