Promising three-year-old Count Of Anjou notched his maiden win at Warracknabeal on Saturday at just his second career start. The gelded son of Rubick sat outside the lead throughout the 1200-metre event and was strong to the line, holding off the late closers to record a half-length win. There’s improvement to come from this galloper, who did plenty wrong in the run but had enough in store to get the result. After a clean beginning, jockey Jack Hill sent the Dwyer runner forward and landed a position outside the leader and race favourite Bushtocity, who was beaten off upon straightening. Count Of Anjou raced clear inside the final furlong and, despite having a good look around, comfortably held a margin to break his maiden status. Hill noted post-race that this galloper will continue to improve with racing. “He took a bit of riding to get around the corner, he’s a bit new to it all”, Hill said. “The last hundred-metres he was looking at the winning post, running away from it and having a bit of a stargaze. He’s won on raw ability, I think there’s more there”. Trainer Henry Dwyer spoke along similar lines. “Look he won, which is good. He still did a lot wrong”, Dwyer said. “He was too good for them obviously, so he got the job done”.
“That’s just education and experience and that’s a positive thing, because we know if he does put it all together he’ll be a better horse than he was today”.
Dwyer is considering dropping his gelding back in distance next start, either at Morphettville on the Parks circuit in a fortnight’s time or on his home track later that same week.