TESTA Rossa gelding Meshmaker enhanced his SAJC Derby credentials when recording his third win inside five starts taking out the Mo Barry’s 80th Birthday Handicap (1529m) in Adelaide yesterday.
Meshmaker’s surging 0.8-lens victory, six weeks after his last appearance, was a personal triumph twenty-five-year-old Sam Kavanagh, son of Melbourne Cup winning trainer, Mark.
Meshmaker was Sam’s first runner in his own right as a trainer and could very well give the young horseman his first major win when the Derby rolls around in May.
Should Meshmaker be able to take out the 2500m classic he would emulate one of Testa Rossa’s prior Group 1 winners in Testafiable who won the feature back in 2006 for trainer Peter Moody.
Testa Rossa delivered yet another two-State double on the weekend, Meshmaker’s effort was followed later in the day when Panpique scored the Listed VRC Bob Hoysted Handicap (1000m) at Flemington.
It was the second black type for win for Panipique, a current day member of the Peter Moody stables, who won the VRC Miss Security Stakes (1100m) this time last year.
Panipique will now be aimed at the Group 1 ATC Galaxy (1200m) at Randwick on April 21.
