BJORN Baker continued his love affair with the Flemington straight when he produced Disneck to win the Group 3 Standish Handicap (1200m) impressively on Saturday.
According to form pundits, Disneck was a risk on two fronts as he was first-up and hadn’t trialled well, and as a result, he started at $11.
Disneck treated those knocks with contempt as he swept past his rivals in the closing stages to gain a golden ticket into the Newmarket Handicap.
His jockey, Daniel Stackhouse, wasn’t worried about the pre-race chatter and went into the race full of confidence knowing who Disneck was trained by.
“I wasn’t too concerned about his trial. I thought, ‘He’s really good when he’s fresh, he’s run really well up the straight, he’s back on top of the ground, we mapped right being out wide, and he’s trained by Bjorn Baker’. There’s a lot of ticks there, so I was confident,” Stackhouse said.
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The style of the win suggested he wouldn’t be out of place in the Newmarket Handicap as he won by a length and three-quarters, eased up.
In recent years, Standish Handicap winners It’sourtime and Sghirripa contested the Newmarket Handicap and weren’t disgraced, and Disneck’s victory was more impressive.
Baker is yet to win a Newmarket Handicap. He has had great success at the Flemington straight, having won several feature races, highlighted by Ozzmossis’ win in the 2023 Group 1 Coolmore Stakes.
His top sprinter, Overpass, has also won two feature sprints at Flemington.
Stackhouse carried out his pre-race plan of following Mark Zahra on Aviatress to a tee until the 250m mark, where they then went to her outside and left them in their wake.
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“He’s really effective when he’s ridden cold like that; he’s got a great turn of foot.
“It was a nice win and a good start to his preparation.”
Stackhouse said he would leave any possible Newmarket Handicap calls to Baker.
