Luke Pepper’s bold decision to tackle the tougher of two stakes races with Opal Ridge has been rewarded with the filly posting a brilliant victory in the Listed Luskin Star Stakes at Scone.
Pepper could have kept the three-year-old to her own age and sex in the Denise’s Joy Stakes (1100m) but chose to take on the open class sprinters in Saturday’s 1300m feature and Opal Ridge didn’t let him down.
Settling three-wide with cover and midfield, the filly peeled out at the top of the straight where she unleashed a withering burst of acceleration that caught even apprentice Dylan Gibbons by surprise.
“I thought, (leader) Titanium Power is no slouch, I don’t want to be sitting pretty and when I said go, I nearly fell off the back of her. I was glad I had a neck strap to hang on to,” Gibbons said.
“She has run home in nearly 33 (seconds) flat and she has picked them up with ease. She has got some brilliance.”
So quickly did Opal Ridge finish ($3.90 unibet fav), she put two lengths on nearest rival Gravina ($12) with Titanium Power ($6) holding on for third.
For Pepper, the former track rider of champion sprinter Takeover Target, the overwhelming feeling was one of relief.
“I was either going to be an absolute champion with my pick of this race, or look like a bit of a goose,” Pepper said.
“I was hoping she did what she did because I felt a bit of pressure this week and we got it right.”
The win was Opal Ridge’s second this preparation after she claimed the Darby Munro Stakes first-up on a good track before a brace of slightly disappointing performances on heavy tracks during the Sydney autumn carnival.
Pepper felt the filly’s win in the Tapp-Craig Stakes on wet ground last spring misled them into thinking she was a superior heavy track performer.
“That Tapp-Craig had us thinking she was a heavier tracker, or could handle the heavy, and I think she gets through it but she’s just not as dynamite,” he said.
“Off the back of a freshen up she was dynamite again today.”
Opal Ridge is likely to be aimed towards the Group 1 Tattersall’s Tiara (1400m) at the back-end of the Brisbane winter carnival.