Soul Patch on Derby path after Valley win

Saturday 26 October 2019, 4:03pm

Trainer Ken Keys is keeping his feet firmly planted after Soul Patch raced his way into Victoria Derby contention with an impressive win at The Valley.

Soul Patch won Saturday's Drummond Golf Vase (2040m) and had his price slashed from $11 into $5 for next Saturday's Derby over 2500m at Flemington.

The addition of blinkers aided Soul Patch in his success although Keys is considering removing the headgear from the three-year-old for next week's classic.

Ridden by Dwayne Dunn, Soul Patch ($4.40) defeated Moonlight Maid ($4.40) by 2-1/2 lengths with Serious Liaison ($6.50) 3-1/4 lengths away third.

With more than 30 years experience as a trainer, Keys has yet to taste success at the highest level, coming close in 2014 with Rich Enuff in the 2014 Caulfield Guineas when beaten by Shooting To Win.

"I think I'm due but I've been built up too often to be let down, so we'll just see how it plays out," Keys said.

Keys sees the Derby distance a slight concern for Soul Patch because the colt is bred for shorter trips being by Shamus Award who won the 2013 Cox Plate.

"He's got a pedigree of a middle-distance horse, not a Derby horse, but he races like a stayer," Keys said.

"He's got more brilliance than a true stayer, but he's got the temperament of a stayer."

Dunn suggested the blinkers for Soul Patch after the colt finished eighth in the Caulfield Guineas on October 12.

"He's a lovely style of a horse and his sectionals in the Guineas were awesome," Dunn said.

"We just felt he needed the blinkers to try and put him into the race a bit, but we were mindful today that we didn't overdo it.

"We wanted to see him run the trip with the Derby in mind and Kenny and his team are doing a fantastic job with him."

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »