Racing: Fromelles wins Gold Cup on inside rail

Photo / Thinkstock

Trentham's inside rail was on fire on Saturday, not something you associate with winter tracks in the capital.

What happened to horses hugging the Trentham outside running rail for the entire length of the home straight during the wet months.

If you were not on the inside rail on Saturday you were effectively nowhere.

It won the $40,000 Trentham Gold Cup for Fromelles, with Lisa Allpress picking exactly the right strip to come down from the home turn.

Three starts back Matamata trainer John Sargent was resigned to spelling Fromelles for the winter without the feature win he knew the mare was capable of. In successive starts, Fromelles has now won the $70,000 Rotorua Cup and the Trentham Gold Cup.

"She wouldn't want a track any worse than the one she struck yesterday," said Allpress yesterday.

Fromelles was the only favourite to win in the legs of the Pick6. Relative outsiders won the other five legs and two 10 per cent shares selected all six winners, each of the tickets being worth $213,891.

At Ellerslie, Misstrum showed she was a filly to watch next season when Cambridge trainer Roger James produced her to win the $50,000 Graeme Thomson Jewellers Great Northern Foal Stakes at reasonable odds.

The filly had come through a hairline shoulder fracture which required a three-month confinement period to correct.

She looks far too classy to be running around on genuine winter tracks and will be spelled with a summer and autumn campaign in mind.

The winner of the last Ellerslie race, Quickasucan, is another who has come through a significant shoulder injury.

"If you knew what we've been through with this bloke you wouldn't believe it," said trainer Jim Pender.

"He wrenched a shoulder in a race last year and it took forever to repair. We brought him back after a three-month spell and thought he was right, but as soon as you tightened the girth on the saddle it would pinch him because the shoulder wasn't repaired."

Quickasucan always looked smart and turned in a big effort to win on Saturday. His future now looks bright.