Tim Donnelly produced quite the training feat to have Pontmain win on debut at Murrumbidgee Turf Club on Tuesday.
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A mile race on debut proved no problem for Pontmain ($13.00) as he proved too good for his rivals in the MTC Function Centres Maiden Handicap (1600m).
Gundagai’s Tony and Bill Barton purchased Pontmain as a yearling from France and she also spent time in New Zealand before arriving at Donnelly’s stable seven weeks ago.
Donnelly gave much of the credit to the Bartons and knew he had a serious horse on his hands after the first time he sat on Pontmain.
“I rang them up and said you won’t get a better horse than this,” Donnelly said.
“I said to them he’s a 1600 metre horse. I looked up the stallion’s record in Europe and they were all 16-1800 metre horses, and that’s over there. So why run him over a shorter distance? I just had to get him really fit because I knew he would be better than them.”
While Donnelly has a big opinion of the five-year-old son of Le Havre, he has no grand plans for the gelding just yet.
“I’ll have to jump him up in class to get the distance he wants,” he said.
“We’ll space his races. He’ll improve from that run today.”
Pontmain sat midfield on the rails and came with a strong run, hitting the lead at the 200 metre mark, before holding off the fast-finishing Tycoon Dreaming ($3.00) by a half length. Larmour ($9.50) was third.
The gelding landed some big bets from the stable in winning.
It was the first leg of a winning treble for jockey Mathew Cahill.
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