Former Kiwi stayer Patrick Erin scored his first win for premier trainer Chris Waller when he beat his stablemate Brimham Rocks in the 2018 Group 1 $750,000 The Heineken 3 Metropolitan (2400m) at Randwick today.
Patrick Erin, above in black and white checks and purple sleeves, scores a narrow win in The Metropolitan at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.
Patrick Erin had failed to run a place from five starts for Waller since arriving from New Zealand but rose to the top today with a tough win in the Everest Carnival feature staying race.
Corey Brown had Partick Erin settled in the middle of the pack but said that the stop start tempo of the race didn’t really suit the seven year old.
Brown worked Patrick Erin ($16) into the clear in the straight and he set out to chase down the $4.60 favourite Brimham Rocks to get the judge’s decision by a nose to give Waller the quinella.
The Lindsay Park trained Sikandarabad ($26) ran a great race to make up ground from the back to find third place.
“There wasn’t any speed on paper so I thought we would settle midfield but we kept getting shuffled right back and was probably worse than midfield but once the runs appeared in the straight with no weight on his back he actually picked up and lengthened really well,” Brown said.
Patrick Erin could run in the $500,000 St Leger Stakes (2600m) at Randwick in two weeks and he is also nominated for the both the Group 1 $5m Stella Artois Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield and the Group 1 $7.3m Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington and now work out a program that leads him to the First Tuesday In November.
“Not sure. Might look at something bigger. The St Leger here in two weeks and obviously you’ve got the Cups in Melbourne. Two miles is really going to suit him to hit his peak,” Waller said.
“I could just see him improving. He’s a tough horse. Keeping him fresh.”
“It’s great for Corey Brown. He’s been a big supporter of me. He doesn’t get enough opportunities from our stable because of all our riders. He made the effort to ride the weight.”
