Spechenka set a new 2400m course record time at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney by winning the Group 3 Summer Cup in 2:26.36, bettering the previous course and race record held by Lanolin of 2:27.42 in the Summer Cup held 10 years ago.
Spechenka showed that he is a quality stayer after finishing strongly from the tail of the field with jockey Rod Quinn to win the Summer Cup by 1 1/2 lengths from Strike One with 2 lengths to Let Them Have It.
The result also means that the five-year-old gelding could let Beaudesert trainer Ben Ahrens and owner Deb Argue live the horse racing dream, having qualified for the 2011 Melbourne Cup with the record breaking run.
But there almost was no fairytale for Spechenka and his owner and strapper Deb Argue. Argue was given the mare Special Class with Spechenka in utero after the mare suffered a severe hock injury on the way to be exported. Argue nursed Special Class back to health and she foaled Spechenka.
”The mare had put her hock bone through the back of her leg,” Argue said. ”She couldn’t travel, and I was asked if I wanted her and I said, ‘Yeah, no worries.’
”It took five months to fix her leg. She was in a bad way, and probably should not have had the foal.”
The win in the Boxing Day Summer Cup also impressed jockey Rod Quinn. Quinn was surprised by the Queensland stayer’s acceleration after sitting off the main bunch in a fast-run race up to the turn.
”Ben [Ahrens] was telling me before the race that he would just lob along and could surprise me,” Quinn said.
”He feels like an out-and-out stayer. I was off the bit, and I was saying, ‘Come on, at least make up a couple of lengths and get on the back of them.’
”I gave him a back-hander on the turn, and all of a sudden he took off and was going – I thought, ‘Where has that come from?’ He went that quick, I got there too early. There is no problem with him staying. I actually had to get the clerk of the course to help me pull him up.”
Spechenka will now be rested with a run in the 2011 Brisbane Cup in June a possibility.
2010 Summer Cup Results
| Horse | Jockey | Finish | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPECHENKA | ROD QUINN | 1st | $14 |
| STRIKE ONE(GB) | TIM CLARK | 2nd | $9.50 |
| LET THEM HAVE IT | CHRISTIAN REITH | 3rd | $21 |
| LANG(NZ) | TAYLOR LOVELOCK-WIGGINS | 4th | $81 |
| BELLAGIO WYNN | DANIEL GANDERTON | 5th | $8 |
| BEIJING BOY(NZ) | BRENTON AVDULLA | 6th | $2.90F |
| ROCK KINGDOM | NASH RAWILLER | 7th | $3.10 |
| ALEXANDER OF HALES(USA) | JEFF PENZA | 8th | $19 |
| TWO TOWERS | PETER WELLS | 9th | $151 |
| JUNGLE ROCKET(NZ) | JON GRISEDALE | 10th | $12 |
| GOPANA | JOSH ADAMS | Scratched | – |
