DU PLESSIS PILOTS HONORABLE SPIRIT TO A SURPRISINGLY EASY WIN IN THE GOLD COAST CUP

By Graham Potter | Friday, August 26, 2022

A confident ride and a horse primed to perform at his best on the day proved to be a recipe for success for the John Smerdon trained, Mark Du Plessis piloted Honorable Spirit who won the $125 000 Gold Coast Cup as he liked, scoring by a clearcut 2.30 lengths at the Gold Coast on August 26.

This was a rare Friday Metropolitan meeting in Queensland, with the fixture being aligned to the Gold Coast show weekend, and Honorable Spirit made the most of his opportunity to land one of the feature races on the day.

The seven-year-old, Charm Spirit gelding is no stranger to Cup contests.

Amongst others, he won the Queensland Cup at Eagle Farm back in October 2021, having finished second in the Toowoomba Cup in the run prior to that success.

He also ran in the Ipswich Cup, the Tatts Cup and the Grafton Cup (in which he finished fourth), so he was never going to be out of place in the Gold Coast Cup line-up … but, by the same token, few would have predicted the ease with which his win was achieved in the 2200m event.

Always in touch with the speed, Du Plessis positioned Honorable spirit in fourth place, hugging the rail, just two lengths off the leader as Seat Of Power took the field down the back stretch.

Du Plessis had Honorable Spirit was up to third in the sweep to the home turn, then second on straightening where he immediately joined issue with the long-time leader Seat Of Power.

From there it became a two-horse race and from just inside the 200m it was ‘race over’ as Du Plessis drove Honorable Spirit into a decisive lead, pulling away with such authority that Du Plessis even had time to sneak a couple of cheeky looks over his shoulder over the concluding stages.

Seat Of Power stayed on for second, while the $2.90 favourite Barade had to settle for a distant third place, finishing all of 5.60 lengths behind the winner without ever looking likely to have any major say in the outcome.

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