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Smart galloper Damo served up a timely reminder of his ability with a stunning upset as he outgunned his rivals to take out the $95,000 Open Benchmark 83 race over 1600m on Sunday.
Ridden for the first time by jockey Danny Beasley, the five-year-old son of Lode, who was dismissed by the public with the generous odds of $121, led from start to finish and won in convincing fashion by a length and three-quarters over Holy Warrior (Manoel Nunes) and Thumping (Alan Munro) who could not be separated at the winning post.
The dead-heated pair were heavily fancied, priced at $13 and $15 respectively, but could not match Damo’s winning time of 1min 36.41sec.
It was the gelding’s fifth victory from 23 starts, but first in almost nine months and perhaps it was the dip in form that saw the class-dropper consigned to the role of outsider prior to the race.
“He didn’t deserve that outsider tag,” said Beasley, who had ridden Damo during Tuesday’s barrier trials and had nothing but praise for the Patrick Shaw-trained galloper. “He’s a really good quality horse that ran well first up and was just against much better horses in his last start.”
Damo finished fourth in a Kranji Stakes C (1200m) on January 5 after returning from a six-month spell before struggling against a tough field that included Group winners Wild Geese and Tropaios in an Open Benchmark 79 (1600m) a month later.
“He dropped a class today and was well suited against this field but no one seemed to give him any chance but he’s always capable of a performance like that.”
It certainly helped that none of the other seven runners seemed bothered to mount an assault at any stage or put the leader under any sort of pressure, allowing Damo to build up a sufficient lead and romp home in a comfortable manner.
“He rode a cracking race,” said Shaw, who also saddled Emperor’s Banquet (Barend Vorster) which finished a neck away in fourth. “Once he got a cheap lead we know he can sprint away and he showed it.”
Equally surprised at the way the race panned out was Beasley, who was expecting noted front-runner Tiger Master (Troy See) or Warspirit (Tan Wei Li), carrying the lightest load thanks to the apprentice claim, to set a quicker pace from the outset.
“The speed of the race never eventuated and we took advantage of that,” said the Australian hoop, who saluted earlier aboard the Shane Baertschiger-trained Best Totheligh and picked up his 17th win of the season thanks to his new partnership with Damo.
“The first half mile was really easy and like all of Mr Shaw’s horses, he was very fit and just kept going.
“It was just a matter of getting him ready for this race and credit to Pat and Ricardo (Le Grange, assistant trainer to Shaw) for doing what they do and preparing him well for today.”
Damo, an Argentina-bred chestnut gelding, has now won around $265,000 in prizemoney for the Tmen Stable.
