Mungrup Win No Surprise For Smith
18 March, 2019
Thoroughbred
Trainer Lindsey Smith said Reykjavik’s first-up victory in Sunday’s Mungrup Stud Sprint (1300m) at Mount Barker came as no surprise.
Validating favouritism, Reykjavik put away his rivals with ease, dashing clear over the concluding stages and scoring by two lengths.
It was the second-leg of a feature double for Reykjavik after he took out the Hannans (1400m) at his previous start in Kalgoorlie last October.
Reykjavik, who carried the 54kg minimum, gave Smith his first victory in the Mungrup Stud Sprint while for jockey Dan Staeck it was his second.
Smith said the conditions of the Mungrup Stud Sprint were tailor-made for Reykjavik, who improved his record to five wins from 26 starts.
“He was well suited by the weight, the distance and some of the old boys (rivals) had been around for a while,” Smith told Tabradio.
“He had a good chance to bowl them over yesterday (Sunday) with the conditions of everything and it was a good effort.
“It’s good to win a $100,000 race like that and he has put a couple of them together like that now.
“It’s good for the owners and the stable to win the race, a race that we haven’t been able to win in the past.
“So it was good they put it back a couple of months and allowed this horse to have a shot at it.”
Reykjavik came to Smith’s stable over 15-months ago and from his past six outings the son of Artie Schiller has not finished outside the top three.
Smith says he’s confident the four-year-old will continue his measure of improvement and enjoy a breakout campaign.
“You would think that his last five runs last prep and his first-up run would lead us to think that,” Smith said.
“We are hopeful of that, but he will have to be because now he is going to have to step up against better horses.
“The horse came to me in good order and low down in the ratings.
“I have been able to pick a couple off on the way through and the horse has matured a bit.
“A bit of hard work has taken the edge off him and he has settled down now.
“It’s paying dividends, but time will tell if he steps up.”
Julio Santarelli