There certainly wasn’t the whole town present yesterday at Eagle Farm. And the noise generated by the owners was more akin to a cry of relief than elation when TOWN CRIER clung on to narrowly win the Class 5 Plate.
Despite a 30% winning strike rate from his previous 18 starts, TOWN CRIER hadn’t won since March. So it was a reassured trainer, Matt Hoysted, who greeted the horse after his sixth victory.
“It’s been a frustrating last few runs with him but it was the right sort of race for him today, getting an uncontested lead,” Hoysted said.
Uncontested indeed, with 600m splits of 36.9 and 33.4 seconds in a copybook ride from Daniel Moor.
Race shape and speed maps are the tools of the contemporary analyst, yet rarely do predictions play out as precisely as yesterday‘s event.
“It all went perfectly to plan,” Moor said on returning to scale.
“Not often it does, more often than not it doesn’t. Matty knows this horse inside out and pinching that mid race breather, helps at the finish.”
TOWN CRIER has now amassed $258,250 in prizemoney from 19 trips to the races. The son of SPIRIT OF BOOM was a $160,000 yearling from Emirates Park’s draft at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale.
Proven’s tally of winners for the season now stands at 10, seven of which are trained by Hoysted.
