DALBY DOUBLE FOR MICHAEL NOLAN

By Graham Potter | Saturday, April 23, 2022

Saturday April 23 at Dalby was a good day for the Michael Nolan stable. Any time you land a stable double is a good day.

First to trouble the scorer was Bent Benny, whose only previous win had come over the same track and distance back on August 21, 2021.

That win was obviously in Maiden company, while this time around Bent Benny saluted in a BM 58 Handicap in which he jumped at a starting price of $6.

Bent Benny looked like he might take the race by the scruff of the neck and control it from the front when he jumped into an immediate lead, but the $31 bolter Uralba was intent on having her say and she quickly chased up alongside the inside of Bent Benny and these two runners then matched motors until the approach to the home turn where Uralba edged ahead.

Uralba was in full cry now and she dropped Bent Benny, who had hung out to a small degree on the turn, by just under three lengths in the early part of the straight.

Even approaching the 100m mark, you would have been forgiven for thinking it was ‘race over’ in favour of Uralba, but Bent Benny and Monty Savva weren’t quite done for yet and the Nolan trained runner found his second wind just in time to lengthen his stride well enough to come back into contention and to ultimately reel in the now tiring Ulralba in the shadow of the post.
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Then American Red took centre stage for the Nolan stable in a QTIS Three-Year-Old Maiden Handicap over 800m … and he duly completed the Nolan race-day double.

American Red, the $2 favourite, won a very keen chase for the early lead. His market rival, the $2.60 chance Exondaroses was also right there though, taking on American Red every step of the way in the relatively short sprint to the home turn where it became apparent the Nolan runner was going better than Exondarses, and that the only danger jockey Monty Savva had to worry about from that stage was from anything that might emerge out of the pack.

As it turned out, there was absolutely nothing to worry about as American Red remained very much in charge all the way to the line where he scored by a decisive 3.30 length margin.

This was only American Red’s second start.

The three-year-old son of Red Dazzler, who did not race as a two-year-old, had finished second on debut at Gatton back on September 30 over 860m after which he was allowed time away from racing for just under seven months before resuming with this solid win.

*Michael Nolan took three runners to this meeting at Dalby. Monta Savva, was on both of the Nolan trained winners as well as Twilight Boom who followed up his Maiden win on April 9 with a third place finish here in a BM58 Handicap.

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