Change in plans reaps valuable prize.

Eastern States racing has lost several meetings in recent weeks due to adverse weather and one of those abandonments saw its end result played out at Flemington yesterday when Glaneuse (Blevic) won the $200,000 TROA/Luxbet Winter Championship (Listed) over 1600 metres, writes Darryl Sherer (ANZ Bloodstock News).

Trained at Mount Gambier by Michael O’Leary, Glaneuse missed his run in a Winter Championship Heat last Sunday when adverse weather forced the Hamilton meeting to be abandoned. “He missed the run last week,” a smiling O’Leary said afterwards, revealing he almost sent Glaneuse to run in Adelaide. “If they told me the day before they were going to change it to 1400 [metres] I would have run in Adelaide. I thought I have got nowhere to go but here.” Linda Meech gave Glaneuse every chance and was happy to race three wide from halfway with the advantage of cover in the big field. Meech turned Glaneuse loose into the straight and the son of Blevic swept into the lead with 400 metres to run, comfortably holding out Riceman (Runyon) to score by a length and a quarter at the finish.

Not surprisingly, O’Leary was full of praise for Meech. “I couldn’t believe he was up there so close. She just rode him a treat. We have got the money so we are very happy people.” “He travelled well all the way and really found for me in the straight,” Meech said. “It was a good tough win.” This is the first stakes win for Glaneuse (5 g Blevic – Qu’appelle, by Export Price) who has now won 10 of his 26 starts and earned $291,668. He becomes the 22nd stakeswinner for his VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winning sire who is standing Kambula Stud in South Australia at an advertised fee of $5,500 for the 2011 season.

TROA would like to congratulate owners William Slattery, John Slattery and Michael Munckton on the victory.