WHERE there’s a will, there’s a way!
Hawkesbury trainer James Ponsonby’s tough nine-year-old Will To Excel at Wagga on Friday booked himself another ticket to the Jericho Cup meeting at Warrnambool on December 1.
It was the fourth year in a row Will To Excel contested the 3200m “Road to the Jericho Cup Mountaineer Cup” – he has won two and finished third in the other two – and it will also be the fourth time he has appeared at the Jericho Cup meeting, always run on the fourth Sunday after the Melbourne Cup at Flemington.
“Today’s win guaranteed him a start in the Jericho Cup (4600m),” a proud Ponsonby declared en route home.
“Will To Excel ran fifth in 2021 and seventh in 2022, and didn’t make the Cup last year and ran fourth (beaten only one and a half lengths) in the Consolation over 4065m.”
Ponsonby purchased the son of noted staying influence High Chaparral as a late five-year-old for $8000 online in April 2021, and has now won four races with him.
“He didn’t begin racing until he was four years of age and was very immature early on,” he said.
“Even as a six-year-old he still had his foibles.
“Will To Excel is at his best in these distance races when he gets the tempo to suit, and Mathew Cahill knows him well.
“Even though he was last approaching the home turn, he was confident of picking them up in the straight.”
An $8.50 chance – surprising in view of his Wagga 3200m record – Will To Excel burst down the outside to trounce his rivals by nearly five lengths. McGeehan ($6) and Kembla Grange mare Lady Redwood ($8) filled the minor placings.
“Will to Excel is going as well as he ever has,” Ponsonby said.
“I’ll follow the same path to the Jericho Cup as I have done the last two years and run him at The Valley in a couple of weeks in the Road To The Jericho (a Benchmark 78 Handicap over 3800m) on November 15.
First run in 2018, the Jericho Cup was introduced to honour “Bill The Bastard”, arguably Australia’s greatest war horse, the Australian Light Horsemen and their magnificent mounts; the Walers 1914-1918.
“Bill The Bastard” won the inaugural Jericho Cup, run over three miles through the desert sands toward the end of the First World War.
The race meeting was organized to lull the enemy into believing nothing unusual was afoot on the eve of a major offensive the Light Horse was planning against the Turkish Empire.
Ponsonby had hoped to clinch a Wagga double, but Drunken Sailor ($20) finished second in the Class 1/Maiden Plate (1600m).
“He is a lightly-raced four-year-old by Ocean Park who has raced only six times, and I like him,” he said.
“Getting to 2000m will really suit him.”
Story John Curtis, November 1, 2024
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