The Dress Code is Perfect at Morphettville
- Wednesday, 19 February 2003 00:00
With the in form Noel Callow in the saddle, Dress Code managed to hold out a determined challenge from the fast finishing King's Choir by a mere head.
The early leader Fragmentation ($6.50-$4.60 eq fav) boxed on solidly to finish third just a long neck further back.
Winning trainer Robbie Laing said the $20,000 Gold Coast purchase was likely to have his next start in the Group One VRC Sires' Produce Stakes at Flemington on March 10.
"The Sires' looks a really nice race for him," a jubilant Laing said. "And the distance will suit him, that's for sure."
"He tends to just get run off his feet a bit early and when his distances are a little longer he would be able to be at his best," he added.
For Noel Callow today's Magic Millions Classic win was the jockey's most significant during a long career in the saddle.
"I've won at Group Two level in the past and finished a head second in the Futurity," Callow noted. "But this win today is by far the best I've had."
Callow felt that Dress Code would be ideally suited to races like the Sires' Produce in the future.
"He is going to make into a very good horse when his distances are stretched out a little," the beaming rider reported.
Dress Code's win was a triumph for Jack Woolridge, the man behind Inverness Stud. The son of El Moxie was bred and sold by Inverness at the 2002 Conrad Jupiters Magic Millions Yearling Sale.
"He probably wasn't the perfect yearling," Laing recalls. "But if you could forgive him for a few faults he actually was a lovely horse."
Laing is expected to be one of the many leading Australian trainers who will be among the bidders during tonight's first session of the Adelaide Magic Millions Yearling Sale.
Other high profile trainers in town for the race and sales carnival include Lee Freedman, Gai Waterhouse, Graeme Rogerson, Clarry Conners, Tony McEvoy, Tony Vasil, Sheila Laxon, Mathew Ellerton, Bill Mitchell, David Hayes, John Moore, John Symons, Brian Mayfield-Smith, Leon Macdonald, Joe Hall and Rick Hore-Lacy.
