It was a Hope family victory on their home track at the Seymour Racing Club’s eight-race program on Thursday April 27.
Doctor Robert, trained by the father-son duo of Lee and Shannon Hope, strapped by the latter’s wife, Dee Hope, was ridden by Shannon’s daughter Tahlia to round off getting the judge’s nod in the 1600-metre Avenel Equine Hospital Maiden Plate.
The three-year-old Proisir gelding got up in the last stride to defeat the $2.35 favourite Anarya by a short-half-head with Tenace, $2.80, a long neck away third.
“In his races and jumpouts he’d been settling at the rear of the field so we told Tahlia to ride him more forward and it worked,” Lee Hope said.
“Tahlia followed the path where he gallops of a morning and he did the rest for her.”
Formerly trained in Sydney by Annabel Neasham, Shannon purchased the gelding online for longtime stable client Tony Buckley. Doctor Robert was having his third race start.