POPE CODY EARNS A CRACK AT THE $500 000, GROUP 3, GLOAMING STAKES AT ROSEHILL GARDENS

By Graham Potter | Saturday, September 28, 2024

While there were plenty of rousing finishes at Toowoomba on Saturday ... five races were decided by less than a quarter-of-a-length ... nobody could get close to Pope Cody’s seven length romp in the Magic Millions Toowoomba Guineas as far as the most emphatic winner on the day was concerned.

This run, which took the chestnut colt’s record to three wins from five starts ... now including two Saturday metropolitan wins ... was good enough to earn this lively prospect a trip south to tackle the Group 3 Gloaming Stakes at Rosehill on October 12, with multiple premiership winning jockey Jimmy Orman giving that assignment his own vote of confidence by confirming that he would stay aboard the Cameron Richardson trained runner.

Richardson today confirmed that Pope Cody was all set for Sydney.

“He’s pulled up great,” said Richardson. “He’s really come through the run with no dramas at all. It all looks good, so I’ve organised most things today and, at this stage, we are planning on going down next week.

“You are going from what he has beaten up here to what he will face down there, but there is no reason why you wouldn’t give it a go."

Small stables, more often than not, don’t receive the credit and fanfare that is handed to the more high-profile trainers when they have a horse seemingly making up quick ground through the ranks, and, while Richardson would never want to get ahead of himself, he has played a pivotal part in Pope Cody’s rise to prominence from day one and deserves every credit for what he has already helped Pope Cody achieve.

“I bought him as a weanling,” said Richardson. “We raised him and broke him in ... and here he is!”

“Sometimes when they win like that, they do go on to better things ... not always ... but I was told there were only a few horses that ran a quicker last 600m than him all day and Jim pretty much pulled him up from the last 100m to the fifty, so fingers crossed.”

A lightly raced three-year-old son of Showman, Pope Cody really did put on a show from start to finish ... from prancing and kicking out in the parade ring under a two strapper hold ... to giving his rivals a seven-length head-start early on ... to reeling them in, seemingly without any undue effort when covering extra ground three wide in the approach to the home ... to hitting the front at the top of the home straight ... to simply exploding away, initially racing with his head to one side ... to winning as he liked without ever being fully tested.

This performance was a far cry from Pope Cody’s humble debut outing at Warwick back in May in which he finished unplaced at a country meeting.

“I just couldn’t get any more education into him before that Warwick run,” explained Richardson. “He had to go to the races ... and I knew he would want a trip ... but we went there to start off.

“I also knew from pretty early on that this horse had something about him. I know a lot of people say things like that, but he is pretty good, I think ... and Jim (Orman) said that this horse is top shelf.”

Pope Cody’s form progression has been a logical and well measured one as he has stepped up in distance from the 1100m at Warwick to 1350m at Ipswich (and his first win). He then tested the waters in town (again over 1350m) before increasing the distance test to 1400m at Eagle Farm (and his second career win) with this latest Guineas win at Toowoomba, over 1625m, completing back-to-back city wins as well seeing Pope Cody put his first feature race win in the bank.

But it is not just Pope Cody’s above average ability that catches your attention.

Many top horses carry a touch of arrogance and, while Pope Cody still has a long way to go to race at the top level, his character might well help him get there.

“Pope Cody has got an attitude,” explained Richardson. “He thinks everyone else is here for him.

“He doesn’t think he is a horse. He thinks he is above it all.

“He is a special animal.”

In four months of racing, Pope Cody has faced the starter five times ... he has recorded three wins ... and his win in the Guineas at Toowoomba took his prize-money earnings through the $100 000 mark to where it now sits at an impressive $126 500.

While drawing comparisons between different horses is often a foolish task, just putting it out there that Pope Cody’s win on Saturday revived memories of another locally trained staying type who similarly demolished the opposition to the tune of 7.30 lengths at Toowoomba back in May 2021.

That was Incentivise’s third win in what would turn out to be a nine run winning sequence which stretched to his win in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup and ended with a runner-up finish in the Melbourne Cup.

While nobody is suggesting that lightning, even in the best-case scenario, will strike twice to the extent it did with Incentivise, Cameron Richardson’s observation that ... “Sometimes, when they win like that, they do go on to better things ... not always” ... remains true.

It is that uncertainly ... that unknown ... which makes racing the great game that it is.

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