The victory of Angela Langton’s Weblec Ranger in Sunday night’s Group 3 Murray Bridge Cup final (455m) was the shining light for Victoria in a huge weekend of interstate feature racing across Australia.
Weblec Ranger was one of two finalists for Langton and partner Jeff Britton, joined in the $26,000 to-the-winner feature by older half-brother Weblec Jet, which was chasing his second Group trophy, having won the G2 Geelong Cup last April.
“It was a nice race, but the main reason we sent them over was that the two guys who own the ‘Weblec’ dogs with me, Neville Loechel and Jeff Weber, are from South Australia,” Langton explained.
“Neville is actually the President at Murray Bridge and apparently they had a lot of old farming and football friends at the track last night – the Weblec dogs have quite a big following over there – so they got a great buzz out of winning the race.”
Weblec Ranger, a November ’19 son of Kinloch Brae and Weblec Rose, was the fastest qualifier, after a 25.27sec heat victory, but while Weblec Jet ran second in his heat, he was the more fancied of the ‘kennelmates’, starting $3.10 favourite from Box 3.
WATCH: Fastest heat winner WEBLEC RANGER (8) led all-the-way to win the Group 3 Murray Bridge Cup final (455m) on Sunday night.
Drawn in Box 8, Weblec Ranger, which was making his second appearance in a Group event after running fifth in the G3 Great Chase last October, was on the third line of betting at $5.50.
The ‘Weblec’ duo was best to begin, with Weblec Ranger crossing to the front; however Weblec Jet was shuffled back and out of contention.
Weblec Ranger was challenged by locals Mr. Ticket and Fantastic Victor in the home straight, but found the line strongly, defeating Mr. Ticket by 1.5 lengths in 25.31sec, his ninth win from 31 starts and third in a row.
“Weblec Jet is the better dog of the two, but we’ve had him over ‘600’ and that might have taken away a bit of the early zip he had,” Langton explained.
“Weblec Ranger’s last few runs have been very good. He won at Sandown before he went over to South Australia and then he went really well in his heat. He jumped to the front and they didn’t look like catching him.
“I was surprised Weblec Ranger was the price he was. Maybe Box 8 isn’t a great box there.
“They both couldn’t have begun any better. They came out running and unfortunately ‘Jet’ got crowded, but Weblec Ranger just kept going.
“We’ll probably give Weblec Ranger a go at the (G2) Ballarat Cup. He might not be quite up to that level at the moment, but hopefully with maturity he can get there. He’s done a really good job to win this race, travelling away two weeks in a row to a track he’s never seen before.
“I’d say Weblec Jet will head up to Sydney for the Golden Easter Egg heats this weekend.
On Saturday night, Victoria was represented by multiple finalists in the G1 Perth Cup (520m) and G1 Galaxy (715m) in Western Australia, as well as the inaugural Country Classic, the world’s richest middle distance race, in Dubbo.
Jeff Britton’s Mepunga Ruby ($4.70) was the most fancied of the three Vic stayers in the Galaxy and she ran second to dominant local winner Mambo Monelli, with Knicks Bale ($16.50) fourth and Gypsy Wyong ($10.40) fifth.
“Mepunga Ruby did a terrific job to run second,” Langton said.
“The winner (Mambo Monelli) was too good, but Mepunga Ruby took a lot of ground off him.”
Lala Kiwi ($2.10) and Paddy Wants Pats ($3.50) headed betting on the Perth Cup, striving to give Victoria a fourth straight win in the race; however neither came into play, finishing at the rear of the field.
A trio of Victorians also lined up in the Country Classic (605m), with Aston Ulysses ($14) running fourth, while Immunity ($7) and Jarick Bale ($4) were unplaced.
