Jockey Glyn Schofield rides Le Roi to victory in the Summer Cup at Rosehill. Source: The Daily Telegraph
TRAINER Tony McEvoy simply said "mission accomplished" after former German stayer Le Roi confirmed his potential with an impressive win in the Group 3 $125,000 Summer Cup (2400m) at Rosehill Gardens yesterday.
McEvoy deliberately set Le Roi for the race as victory ensures the horse passes all qualifying clauses for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups next year.
Jockey Glyn Schofield, impressed by Le Roi's strong staying effort, endorsed McEvoy's Cup ambitions.
"He's a super horse, really," Schofield said. "For a horse that stays well and has only had a handful of starts, it was a very good win.
"Tony knows what he has got in this horse and he is in for exciting times ahead."
Le Roi ($2.40 favourite) simply outstayed Brightest ($9.50) to score by three-quarters of a length with Praecido ($13) a length and a half away in third.
This may not have been the strongest Summer Cup field on record but Le Roi was having only is eighth career start, scoring his fifth win, and is clearly a stayer of considerable promise.
"Mission accomplished - it ticks a few boxes winning this race," McEvoy said. "He has passed the 2400m clause and the Group 3 clause. It doesn't qualify you for everything but it helps.
"The major objective I was trying to achieve coming here obviously was to win the race but also the trip away from home will grow him as a horse."
McEvoy revealed Le Roi was among four young stayers he purchased in Europe last year.
"We were looking for another horse in France but this horse came from Dusseldorf and won the race," the trainer recalled.
"The agent I had over there rang me and said the horse I was interested in ran well but he really loved the winner.
"I said go and inspect him but the horse had already gone, left the course.
"So I sent him to Germany to find the horse and fortunately we were able to buy him.
"Of the four overseas horses I purchased, he has come from fourth in the run and is now first!"
Schofield became only the fourth jockey in the past 50 years to complete the Villiers Stakes-Summer Cup double after his win in the first leg on All Legal at Warwick Farm last Saturday. He joins an elite club that includes Bruce McLune (1968), Ron Quinton (1978), Jim Cassidy (1992) and Danny Beasley (2005) to win the ATC's two feature summer races in the same month.
"I was confident of winning this race on Monday when I saw the final fields. I felt there wasn't a horse there that could beat him," said Schofield who completed a winning double yesterday after partnering Fedde to win the final race.
"Le Roi is new to racing and you saw that when he began drifting out in the straight.
"I was quite happy to let him wander out there because there was two horses coming down the outside, my bloke had blinkers on and I wanted him to see them.
"The best part of his race was the last 100m. He just powered away from them on the line. He's a very strong stayer."
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