HE HAD nine last start winners chasing him but Mister Marmalade gave them a hiding, bolting in to a three and a half length win in Friday’s So You Think @ Coolmore Class 1 Handicap (1400m) at Scone.
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The Greg Bennett-trained gelding gave nothing else a chance when Rachael Murray went straight to the front, booted clear to a two half length lead 800m from home and then improved that that to almost four lengths in a brilliant front-running display.
“That’s the way to ride him,” stable foreman Tina Everleigh said as she waited for Murray and the four-year-old gelding son of Duke Of Marmalade to return to the winners stall.
“He’s such a big strider. Rachael jumped out and let him roll, let him run and he will run all day. He’ll get 2000m no worries. That was awesome.”
Mister Marmalade was bred by Forbes owner Lex Crosby. He had trained him early but realised he had too much horse to educate and sent him to “lookalike” Greg Bennett.
“He was too good for me to train,” Crosby admitted.
“I had him in work as a two-year-old but he was too good for me so I had to find someone to train him.”
Bennett is delighted the chestnut arrived at his Scone stable.
“He’s got that big stride,” he said.
“He’s going to be a very nice horse for someone. I might get one more run out of him before I pull up stumps.
“There’s a highway handicap in Sydney next week over 1500m that might suit him. We’ll see how he pulls up.”
“Whoever gets this horse will get a very nice horse.”