Chris Wood’s faith in Canheroc was vindicated at Hastings on Saturday when the son of Westbury Stud’s El Roca landed the Listed Marton Cup in emphatic style.
The Cambridge trainer has held the six-year-old in high regard for some time and convinced he would fulfil his distance potential in strong handicap company.
To that end, connections of Canheroc had rolled the dice the day before to put in a late nomination for the G3 Wellington Cup and the gamble was handsomely rewarded.
“We took a punt and paid up, hoping that he’d justify it with a good run,” Wood said.
“It’s all worked out really well and his performance has given us a bit of confidence to have a crack at Trentham in a couple of weeks’ time.
“We’ll just have to hope that they run the Wellington Cup at a reasonable tempo and he gets every chance.
“I’m pretty sure he’ll run two miles. You never know for sure until you try it, but he races like a horse who’ll see the distance out strongly.”
Canheroc certainly produced a stout staying performance over 2200 metres to score at Hastings where he lobbed along in midfield for jockey Kelly Myers.
He picked up ground across the top and produced a sustained finish wide on the track to win going away by five lengths.
“That was a really good performance. I was a little bit worried when the second lot of rain came, but he seemed to get through the ground comfortably enough,” Wood said.
“Kelly did a very good job on him. She got him to settle really well and got him to the right part of the track when it mattered.
“There was a good tempo, which is always such a big help for staying horses like him, and once Kelly got him into the clear, he was away.”
The ninth individual stakes winner for El Roca, Canheroc is raced by the Schumacher family who also bred the gelding from their Columbia mare Goldie Cantride. She was successful on two occasions up to 1600 metres.
El Roca’s associate sire Redwood also made an impact on the undercard when his genuine daughter Sequioa Star downed her Rating 65 rivals over 1400 metres.
The four-year-old deserved another winning turn after finishing runner-up in two of her previous three outings for local trainer Jogn Bary.
Sequoia Star took control early in the run home and held a strong gallop to the post for rider Billy Jacobson.
She is out of the unraced Red Ransom mare Red Mariete, who is a half-sister to the G3 Waikato Guineas winner Blimey O’Reilly and to the dam of the five-time Group 1 winner Santa Ana Lane.