ADELAIDE - Taranaki trainer Bob Baker upstaged the big guns when his jumper Blase won the A$160,000 ($184,000) Great Eastern Steeplechase (4950m) at Oakbank yesterday.
Thanks to a daring ride from New Zealand jockey Isaac Lupton who seized the lead with more than 1000m remaining, Blase upset the$2.40 favourite Clearview Bay to win the time-honoured South Australian jumping feature by two lengths.
It was only the Casual Lies gelding's 10th race start but his fourth win, all of them over fences.
He had finished a game third to Clearview Bay in the lead-up Von Doussa Steeplechase at Oakbank on Saturday.
"It was an eye-catching run on Saturday but I didn't expect him to come out and lead most of the way today. It's a very good result," Baker told the Sky racing channel in Australia.
Blase was well fancied yesterday in the market and paid $7 on the New South Wales TAB.
Baker said Blase was booked to fly home on Saturday and he would then look at plans for the New Zealand winter features.
"You'll definitely see me back [at Oakbank] next year," he said.
Blase was one of three New Zealand-trained runners in the race, with the Mark Oulaghan-trained Yourtheman, the second favourite, running fourth after finishing second in the Von Doussa.
Real Bliss, John Wheeler's only runner in the race, finished well back on an unsuitable firm track.
Wheeler originally targeted three runners in a bid for his eighth training success in the race, but was beset by pre-race drama.
Midnight Opal, the mare he part-owned, had to be put down after breaking a shoulder while jumping a fence in training at Oakbank late last week.
Then his best hope, Comand Performance, had to be scratched on Saturday and yesterday after suffering bruising to a leg.
There was some consolation earlier for Wheeler when he won the day's other feature, the A$100,000 Yalumba Classic Hurdle (3600m) with High Season.
High Season ran a big race on the flat on Saturday in preparation for yesterday's race and, with Wheeler's Victorian stable foreman Brett Scott in the saddle, beat hot favourite Menkaure.
