RED TOP - A CITY WINNER AFTER ONLY FOUR STARTS

By Graham Potter | Saturday, July 9, 2022

It doesn’t matter how much you win by.

It doesn’t matter even if it looked like you had finished second.

All that matters is that it is your number which goes up as the winner in the frame and that was the scenario with the Tony and Maddysen Sears trained Red Top who got up in a finish that was so close it had the connections of the second placed Heroic Son, the $2.90 favourite, momentarily celebrating their ‘victory.’

Red Top, a two-year-old son of Top Echelon, came into this QTIS Two-Year-Old Handicap, 1350m contest with some promising form and he certainly was due for his turn in the winners’ enclosure … even if punters went against him to the point where he was allowed to start at odds of $11.

Red Top finished in second place in both of his first two outings … and he was less than half a length off the winner on both of those occasions, over 1210m at Toowoomba and then over 1100m at the Gold Coast.

Up to 1350m here, with Brisbane’s leading jockey Jimmy Orman in the saddle, Red Top settled at the rear of the field early, racing some six to seven lengths behind the Hattusa ($9) and Minks Star (the $4 second favourite) who set the pace up front.

At that stage, Heroic Son, who was racing in second place, held a four-length advantage over Red Top.

The field then condensed quite significantly by the field progressed through the sweep to the home turn. As the field packed up, the runs started to come with Heroic Son, who had switched three wide, coming into the race very quickly approaching the home turn.

Shortly after straightening there was a line of three horses … Hattusa, Minks Star and Heroic Son … contesting the lead and, of these, it was Heroic Son who gained the advantage under hard riding from Mark Du Plessis … but he was far from safe with a wall of horses still snapping at his heels.

Red Top, who had followed the path of Heroic Son through the pack, now emerged as the main danger to the favourite and, with Jimmy Orman using all of his considerable expertise, the Team Sears trained runner began to close ground on heroic Son with each passing stride.

Red Top was still behind a stride-and-a-half from the line, but he dived late and … well, it was a decision too hard to call with the naked eye.

The part that mattered though … the winning number in the frame … ultimately went the way of Red Top, a deserved winner, on both his form in prior starts and his very so game effort in the race itself.

A Saturday winner in town in only his fourth start was a very pleasing result.

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