By Glenn Davis
A daring ride from jockey Matt McGillivray delivered an overdue city win for trainer Barry Baldwin and Glendara at Doomben on Saturday.
McGillivray took off on Glendara at the 600 metres and skirted wide on the home turn before powering on for a dominant three-quarters of a length win over Capetown Hussey in the Listed Tattersall’s Members’ Cup (1640m).
Brazen Moss fought on strongly for third, only a short neck away, third.
Baldwin, a former premiership winning trainer in Brisbane before a stint in Macau, had not won in the city since Pixie Hollow at Doomben on January 10.
“It’s my first win for a while and my first Saturday win since All That Is won at a Gold Coast Saturday meeting last year,” said 74-year-old Baldwin.
Baldwin praised McGillivray for his initiative to circle the field before the home turn.
“It was a great ride from Matt and he did the right thing taking off early,” Baldwin said.
“Glendara was throwing his head about and Matt had the choice of either staying where he was or take off.
“I think he made the right decision.”
McGillivray was indentured to Baldwin for a short time during his apprenticeship before trying his luck in Sydney and returning to eventually ride as a senior in Brisbane.
Glendara has been a model of consistency but it was his first win since scoring at Caloundra in November, 2016.
He was the favoured runner by form students following his fast finishing second to Brazen Moss in his previous run at Doomben last month.
The seven-year-old has always shown promise during his career and has been a good money spinner for connections with prizemoney in excess of $292,000 from seven wins and 12 placings in 41 starts.
“He’s been a great old horse to me and good ones are hard to get when you only have 14 horses in work,” Baldwin said.
“I used to have a lot of horses but I cut them right back as I’m 74 now.”
Baldwin will now aim Glendara for the $100,000 Gold Coast Stakes (1800m) at the Gold Coast on March 21.
“I wanted to take him up north for the Rockhampton Cup last year but he’d get too much weight now,” he said.
“There’s a new race over 1800 metres worth $100,000 at the Gold Coast in two weeks which he’ll go for then I’ll look at some of the second-tier races during the winter.”
Racing Queensland webnews March 3