By Carl Di Iorio TVN Saturday, July 20, 2013 – 3:08 PM
Falcent was able to erase his price tag by winning Saturday’s $100,000 Coolalinga Handicap (1100m) for three-year-olds at Flemington.
The son of Falkirk was purchased for $110,000 from the 2011 New Zealand Ready to Run Sale.
Falcent’s ($7) short half head victory over Bombsquad ($9) ensured he took his prizemoney tally to $125,035 with three wins and three placings from nine starts.
“He’s been a pretty handy horse and he deserved to win one of these races,” Harrison said.
“He just got beaten in a $100,000 race (behind Planet Voyage in April) at Caulfield – it was a great run that day.”
Falcent was having his first start at Flemington but Harrison was confident he’d handle the straight-track course given Falkirk won the 2005 Gilgai Stakes (1200m) when trained by Lee Freedman.
Harrison was also convinced Falcent would be untroubled by the Slow (7) conditions.
“I saw him on the second day of the ready to run sale in New Zealand and it just poured that night,” Harrison said.
“I thought to myself ‘they won’t be able to hold it’ but they did and this fella just let down brilliantly in it (the conditions) and I was very keen to get him. He is tough.”
Winning jockey Dwayne Dunn described Falcent as a horse “with plenty of talent” but “a few little tricks to go with it”.
“He just floated a little bit and when the second horse (Bombsquad) got close he had another go,” Dunn said.