Racing
Shahzad wins the Australia Benchmark 78 Handicap: Post Race Trainer and Jockey Quotes
Trainer and jockey quotes after the BBC Digital and Canon Australia Benchmark 78 Handicap at Gold Coast on Saturday taken out by Shahzad.
Race Result:1st: Shahzad (Annabel & Rob Archibald/Cody Collis) - $122nd: Bestower (Kris Lees/Andrew Mallyon) - $2.80F
3rd: The Right Way (Greg Wright/Emily Lang) - $3.90
Winning Time: 2:17.30 Last 600m: 35.77
Margins: 1L x 3.5L
Winning Trainer: Annabel ArchibaldShahzad eats up the ground to win the @GCTurfClub opener for @ANeashamRacing! pic.twitter.com/pWjfu2Cdh2
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 10, 2025
"It was a really good win. He's taken a long time to acclimatise, that's his first win since he got up here. But the owners have been very patient with him, he's a six year old and has only had six starts. So he's very lightly-raced and the key today was the heavy track."
"He wasn't really handling the training when he first came over, so we gave him a good long spell in the paddock for four months. We slowly brought him back in and he ran well first-up, then put in a couple of stinkers. I was scratching my head after that so we gave him another break, and hopefully he gets onto a roll from here. I thought he went well first-up and we were happy to step him up in trip here today. It was a lovely ride by Cody."
Winning Jockey: Cody Collis
"I never thought at any stage that we were going to get beaten. At the top of the straight when I peeled off the leader's back, he gave a great kick and put them away pretty quickly."
"Annabel was very confident that the horse would run well today. It was probably the weakest race he's been in since he came up here, so that injected some confidence and I rode the horse accordingly."
"The kick-back wasn't too bad. I was travelling well and the horse didn't get into the track too much in the straight."
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