TRAINER Tony McEvoy’s hunch that a different training regime could suit Ambassadorial has paid off in spades after the five-year-old gelding completed a hat-trick of wins with his win in the G3 Easter Cup (2000m) at Caulfield.
McEvoy is considering backing in his judgement again for Ambassadorial’s next start, which could be in the Mornington Cup (2400m) on April 18, which carries a golden ticket for the Caulfield Cup.
McEvoy said the Mornington Cup could be the start of the next chapter for Ambassadorial’s career, as he is yet to be tested at 2400m.
Ambassadorial was sent to Tony and Calvin McEvoy late last year by his owners, Anne Peacock and her sister Jane Chapple-Hyam, who is a trainer at Newmarket in the United Kingdom.
McEvoy said he decided to train Ambassadorial by doing something different with him from his previous trainers and that was to give him an easier time on the training track.
“He’s perfectly sound and he’s in rare form; we won’t stop,” McEvoy said.
“We’ll assess him and the other thing we need to know is whether he runs a mile and a half (2400m) and if he does, that opens a new chapter for him.”
Ambassadorial was ridden by the in-form apprentice Logan Bates, who has ridden him at his last two wins.
Ambassadorial has had five starts for the McEvoys for a third and a second at Flemington before the three successive wins.
Another in-form young jockey, Jett Stanley, recorded the third Group win of his career when he won the G3 Victoria Handicap (1400m) on the Gavin Bedggood-trained Hughes.
In the past six weeks, Stanley has won the Launceston Cup and the Adelaide Cup.
It was an impressive win by Hughes as he came from last, gaining runs through the field.
In the process of winning, Hughes set a new track record for 1400m at Caulfield with his time of 1:21:20 min, taking 0.13 seconds off Exceed And Excel’s record, which was set in 2003.
