Dimension, sent to post as the longest shot on the board at 20-1, overcame a slow start to capture Sunday’s $208,000 Grade II Connaught Cup, at Woodbine.
Trained by Conor Murphy for his Riverside Bloodstock LLC, the eight-year-old Medicean gelding arrived at the seven furlong grass sprint looking for his first win since taking the Kentucky Downs Turf Dash on September 24, 2014. The dark bay was making his eighth appearance at Woodbine and had always shown an affinity for the E.P. Taylor Turf Course over which he won the Grade II Play the King Stakes in 2014.
Stacked Deck, sent to post as the 4-5 mutuel favourite, set a moderate pace in the Connaught Cup reaching the half in :46.83 while under pressure from Glenville Gardens. Dimension, away last of all in the compact field of five, could see them all as the field approached the turn but was unhurried under familiar pilot David Moran.
Dimension rallied late in the turn, following Eurico Rosa da Silva aboard the streaking Passion for Action, as Stacked Deck, clinging to a precarious lead, drifted off the rail fanning the field wider still. Dimension and Passion for Action, full of run, were set down for a lengthy stretch duel and the game and determined British-bred held fast for a 1/2-length score. Passion for Action earned place by a length over Bye Bye Bernie. Dimension covered seven furlongs in 1:21.84.
Moran’s familiarity with the classy eight-year-old gelding proved to be an asset.
“He has good back class. He was a proper horse a couple of seasons ago and seemed to lose his way a little bit,” said Moran. “Conor asked me to take him out the other day for a jog, two miles. I got one mile and got scared and had to gallop him for a mile, he was going to buck me off. He really felt good.”
Despite the slow start, Moran was always confident in Dimension and followed Murphy’s pre-race instructions to the letter.
“Conor said if he doesn’t break, to just sit behind them and run them down,” said Moran. “I was tracking Eurico (da Silva, aboard Passion for Action) the whole way and went to move up on him and I always felt he was going to hold him. He was really chomping at the bit from the three-eighths.”
Murphy was relieved to see Dimension catch a break in the Connaught Cup, a race he has tried three times without success having finished ninth in 2014 and sixth a year ago.
“He loves it up here with the European style turf course, but he hasn’t had a lot of luck in this race,” said Murphy. “Two years ago, he stumbled out the gate and never got into it and last year it rained heavily a couple of hours before the race and he really needs quick ground.”
Murphy expects we’ll see more of Dimension at Woodbine later this season.
“He’s been training fantastically well. I know he’s an eight-year-old but he’s been training like a two-year-old and to get him back to win a race like this is unbelievable,” said Murphy.
Dimension, bred in Great Britain by Cheveley Park Stud Ltd, banked $120,000 in victory while improving his record to 6-6-1 from 32 starts.
He paid $42.70, $8.80 and $8.90, combining with Passion for Action ($3.50, $4.30) for a $133.30 (2-3) exactor. A 2-3-1 triactor (Bye Bye Bernie, $6.70 to show) was worth $331.20.
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
