Rum Dum picks Queensland as his State of Origin
|
The winning team - you couldn't keep the smiles off Shane Scriven's and Barry Baldwin's faces
|
Since returning to the Barry Baldwin stables, albeit not one in particular, Rum Dum has bettered his form and topped it off with his first Black Type win in the Group 3 Patinack Farm Lord Mayor’s Cup 1615m at City Pacific Doomben on Saturday, May 17.
Baldwin also had a winner at Toowoomba the same day with Burdekin Blues and these wins backed up a treble at Ipswich the day earlier. He put the recent wins down to “just good horses”.
But it was the big win with Rum Dum that actually surprised him. “He’s just had a change of heart, he’s racing well at the moment and I didn’t really think it was a Group 3 horse, but that just goes to show you,” said Baldwin.
“I had him for years before then he went down to Sydney for a stint. He’s just a Queenslander.”
Rum Dum (G6 Peintre Celebre USA-McCartney NZ) moved back to Baldwin’s Eagle Farm stables on April 7 from Bede Murray at Kembla Grange where he achieved limited success. Since the move north, the gelding has always been in the winners circle, with a third, then a second, and a win at the Gold Coast two weeks prior to this one.
“Deep down he thinks he’s a Queenslander, it’s that time of year.”
“
|
A jubilant Shane Scriven returns to scale with the winning Rum Dum (Noel Pascoe photos)
|
He’s done pretty well. I haven’t done anything much different. The only thing we’ve done different is he’s got NFA - no fixed abode. We change him, we’ve got four lots of stables and he spends a couple of nights in each one, keeps the monotony out of him. We never know where he is; he goes from one stable to the other. The only place he’s not allowed in much is my place, he’s in the backyard and he windsucks. He’s a windsucker so my wife doesn’t like the noise in the backyard,” said Baldwin.
Rum Dum settled at the back from the jump and was still near the back at the turn. He moved out and at the 100m mark flew up to the pass the leaders.
He claimed the victory a nose ahead of the Robert Heathcote-trained Majorca (Steven King) in a photo finish. For Heathcote another second placing “sums up my year” he said.
Race favourite Mitanni (Brad Pengelly) was third by three quarters of a length but his usual rider Shane Scriven was out of the saddle. Luckily for Scriven he picked up the ride on Rum Dum.
“He rung up and said I’ll ride your horse. And I said ok you’re on,” said Baldwin.
Scriven was visibly delighted after the win. “Connections obviously felt the old boy (Mitanni) wasn’t going as good for me, and I can’t blame them for that. Obviously he wasn’t,” said Scriven.
“I thought in the run I couldn’t get my bloke travelling which I was a little upset about. I kept looking up at him and he got a nice soft lead and I thought if something doesn’t hurry up and get up to him although he’s not going as good he’ll be hard to beat over the mile. I was sort of niggling along there, wasn’t really happy with my bloke at all but got him to the outside.”
“To be honest I thought I got beat, but I had a few choice words over the back and had the barrier boys told me I don’t know what you’re blowing up about, you’ve won. So the choice words turned straight into joyous ones and I just about kissed everyone in sight and yeah I’m pretty happy.”
Baldwin discussed his future plans for the horse, “We’ll just poke along. He loves Ipswich, we might look at the Ipswich Cup, he’s got an affinity for Ipswich so we might take him towards there.”
QUEENSLAND Racing web news: Hollie Roberts – May 20
|
