Savabeel’s son bounces back in style

Sir Albert enjoyed a deserved change of fortune on his home track on Saturday afternoon.

Trained at Riccarton by Terri Rae, the Waikato Stud-bred son of Savabeel had been unplaced in last weekend’s Remutaka Classic at Trentham where got going late after an interrupted run.

Sir Albert was back to winning ways today to claim the Marlborough Cup over 2000 metres and he’s now won four times on his local course and also broke his maiden on the synthetic track at Riccarton.

“He was possibly going to go to Dunedin (next Saturday) after Wellington, but he ended up pretty much following them around up there and running home. He ran the second quickest last 600 metres and still went really well,” Rae said.

“It was his first trip away, but he came through that well, so we thought while the track was good, which he prefers, it would be a good race to back up in. Back at a better weight and better footing, it all worked perfectly for him.”

The four-year-old drifted to second last and was still well back on the turn before he was into the clear and unwound strongly under the urgings of rider Joe Kamaruddin.

Sir Albert is out of the unraced O’Reilly mare Diana Dors, whose Ardrossan filly will be offered by Platinum Bloodstock as Lot 689 at Karaka next Wednesday, and her first two foals Colville House and Sly Corner have been multiple winners in Australia.

The dam is a sister to the G2 Makybe Diva S. winner, Vigor, and the G2 Avondale Guineas winner, Joey Massino, and a half-sister to the inaugural Karaka Million winner, Vincent Mangano.