TESTA Rossa son Leisure Free turned despair into triumph to become his sire’s 51st international stakeswinner when streaking to a 3-lens win in the G3 Sand Classic Cup (1350m) in Macau on Saturday night.
The Gerry Harvey bred 4YO started favourite in the feature but was immediately on the back foot after being slow to jump.
Momentarily at the tail of the 12-horse field, Leisure Free quickly mustered pace and rushed through along the fence to be in fourth spot.
Incredibly, the K. C. Chong trained gelding took over in the lead at the half way mark and was never challenged thereafter, careering away to win by a signficant margin from Husson galloper .
Leisure Free is the second foal of the sturdy Piculet who won 4 of her 35 starts including one each at Rosehill and Warwick Farm.
Piculet is a combination of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Timber Country out of high class mare Dinky Flyer whose principal wins include the Group 1 AJC Queen Elizabeth Stakes and AJC Villiers Stakes.
Piculet is due to foal a Big Brown this coming August.
Leisure Free did his early racing in Australia in the familiar blue and white design of Harvey and was stationed at Robert Smerdon’s Caulfield stables.
Then named, Picante, the horse signalled his ability with a crushing 6-lens maiden win at Ballarat over the mile at only his fourth start in a race.
Testa Rossa remains one of the nation’s most reliable and prolific sires with more than 550 winners, including 99 stakes-performers – 51 SW’ers/48 SP’ed – including G1 winners Ortensia, Rostova and Derby hero Testafiable.
