The John O’Shea trained Peacock ruffled a few feathers when he upstaged his more fancied rivals to score a narrow win in the Listed $120,000 Polytrack Gothic Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield today.
Peacock started at the good odds of $19 and was one of three runners O’Shea saddle up with stablemate Morton’s Fork the second favourite at $3.70 and Trenchant at the juicy odds of $21.
While Dwayne Dunn on Peacock was getting a cushy run back on the inside from a good barrier, Brenton Avdulla had to settle in the second half of the field on Morton’s Fork and then ran into a wall of horses in the straight before getting into the clear late to just miss a place.
Dunn was able to find space close to the fence in the straight and went to the line strongly to hold off the strong finish out wide of Violate ($19).
The well supported favourite Acatour ($2.70) raced on the pace and fought on over the concluding stages to grab third spot.
Winning trainer John O’Shea said that today’s 1400m was as far as Peacock would likely go and will now head to the Listed $150,000 Hilton Stakes over the same distance at Flemington on November 5, the final day of the fur day Melbourne Cup Carnival.
“We came here thinking that he would be very hard to beat because he would get a gun run and that is the way it panned out,” O’Shea said.
“Lucky it wasn’t 4001m but a wonderful ride by Dwayne and good performance by the team to present the horse here in good order.”
“He will go to the Hilton On the Park on the last day. I think seven (1400m) is about the upper limits distance range and the other two there I think you will find that they were pretty unlucky and they can head off to the Carbine Club and will be very hard to beat.”
The Group 3 $200,000 Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) is run at Flemington on October 29, the first day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.