Kim Waugh believes True Crime has the makings of a handy horse and she hasn’t ruled out giving him an opportunity in an early season three-year-old feature.
The juvenile ploughed through the rain and mud to capture the Elite Sand & Soil Handicap (1200m) at Randwick on Saturday before stewards called off the remainder of the meeting due to jockey concerns over visibility and the state of the track.
Waugh was thrilled her charge got the chance to post his first metropolitan win after finishing runner-up to Midnight In Tokyo at the same venue last start and said if True Crime came through the effort well, he could continue into the new-season races.
“We will just see how he pulls up and how he’s coping and then make a plan about what we do with him,” Waugh said.
“But he deserves a crack at a couple of nice races.
“He has always shown a lot of ability. You work him with older horses and he just picks them up and blows them away so he could end up a really nice horse the way he is going.”
True Crime jumped smartly and went to the front for Tommy Berry, who had a good hold on him coming to the corner while several of his rivals were already starting to struggle in the heavy conditions
Steering the two-year-old to the better ground towards the outside fence, Berry kept True Crime balanced and he edged further clear to score by 2-1/2 lengths over Stonecoat with Tintookie the same margin away third.
Reflecting the testing ground, True Crime clocked 1:19.18 for the 1200m, almost 10 seconds outside the class record.
Berry was having his first race ride on the gelding but said he had been keeping tabs on the horse since his determined win on debut at Gosford in June.
“I really liked his win at Gosford. I thought, you’re a really good horse because he absorbed pressure at his first start. Most horses would give up,” Berry said.
“He was really tough on that occasion, and he got a lovely time in front today.”
The jockeys approached stewards shortly after the first race to express concerns over the track and the decision was made to call off the remaining nine races shortly after.