VENTURA OCEAN TWO FROM TWO SINCE ARRIVING IN AUSTRALIA. MALLYON SHINES AGAIN IN THE SADDLE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, March 21, 2021

Coming into Saturday’s Eagle Farm meeting, jockey Andrew Mallyon had scored five wins from his last nine rides and his rich vein of form continued when he produced a polished ride on the Kris Lees trained Ventura Ocean to ensure that the five-year-old, Australian Bloodstock purchase remained unbeaten in his two starts in Australia.

Baroda, Flying Crackerjack and Rich And Shameless formed a line of three looking likely to fight out the finish inside the final 200m but, just when the long-priced Rich and Famous got the better of the three-way battle, Mallyon and Ventura Ocean pounced to win going away by 0.30 lengths.

“He is a very good horse, this bloke, “said Mel Eggleston, the stable representative. I can tell when Kris (Lees) has an opinion of one, especially when he says he is only going to give it one more run.

“I think he is planning something bigger for this horse and I think this horse is going to make the grade.

“There is so much upside for this horse, His demeanour is that of a good horse. He just does everything the way a good horse does.

“Over the years we have had some good horses up here of Australian Bloodstock and Kris’s and he fits that mould … and I just think he is building all the time.”

‘He drew a bit sticky here and Kris just said he’d leave it up to Andrew what to do which proved to be the right call.

“Andrew had it in his head he didn’t want to go back. He used up a bit of juice early and got him over. Good horses … you can ride them like that. Then he came back underneath him which was exactly what you wanted him to do."

Andrew Mallyon agreed with that assessment of the horse.

“I just think he is a nice, progressive horse,” said Mallyon. “He won the other day a bit under-done, and his coat had yet to come through.

“He just seemed to give us every impression that he was going to improve with that run. His work leading into this the last fortnight has been fantastic.

“I was really excited. Even when he drew a bit sticky, I thought he was good enough to win. We ended up getting the perfect run.

“I have got to thank Kris (Lees) for that. We worked out three or four plans but, in the end, I said, you know what, just leave it to me … and he handed me an open book. I prefer to ride that way from bad gates. It all worked out really well.

“He did want to shift his ground a little bit in the straight but, at the same time, it probably prevented him from getting there too soon, so it could have been a blessing in disguise.

“Her bounces. He relaxes. He is a nice horse.”

Ventura Ocean’s debut win in Australia was in a Class 3 race.

Here, he jumped to a Class 6 contest and stepped up the distance test from 1200m to 1400m which posed no problem at all.

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