Consistent gelding Arran Bay had to dig in to earn his maiden black-type success, fighting to the winning post to claim the Listed Furphy Plate over 1800 metres on Melbourne Cup Day.
Ridden by Luke Nolen, Arran Bay was aided by a well-judged ride from the veteran hoop, navigating an outside barrier to end up stalking the leader Makram for the majority of the race. The pair had to fight off a spirited challenge from Unspoken, with the two horses crossing the line in near unison.
With the typical toughness of sire All Too Hard on his side, Arran Bay did enough to claim victory by the barest of margins, his ninth career win across 33 career starts. Trained by Phillip Stokes, the six-year-old gelding has now earned over $800,000 in prize money, having only missed a placing on 15 occasions.
Speaking to Racing.com after the race, Stokes said, “He’s thrown a few races away early in his career, but I think he’s found the sweet spot, the 1800 (metres), and when he gets his own way up there and gets rolling in the races early, he’s always strong.
“So we’ll just keep placing him. We’ve got the Cranbourne Carnival coming up and races like that. So we’ll have a look and see how he pulls up and find another nice race for him.
“We’ll push on. We’ve got the Cranbourne and Pakenham carnivals coming up, so we’ll be well placed there.
“It was a good strong win, Luke (Nolen) gave him a lovely ride. Although he’s never ridden the horse, he knows the horse very well. He got rolling on him early, he was strong late and kick gave strong kicks.
“Luke knows his horse very well. He obviously beat him the other day in the Sale Cup. He knew what to do on him, and he’s ridden him at track work, he gave him a lovely ride, very happy because Luke does a lot of work for us.
Nolen pointed to the toughness of Arran Bay post-race, adding, “It just presented nicely. I identified not a lot of speed at the top end of it. I was a bit surprised how much, how many went forward and it was probably, it was run at a truly strong tempo, and probably played to his fitness.”
“He travelled nicely for me in the run, and he let down a bit of purpose. So he’s a bit of a thinker, the bloke. I think the winkers might have helped, but he’s done a good job. Stokesy and his team have done a really good job.”
Arran Bay is the 26th stakes winner for All Too Hard, joining the likes of Behemoth, Alligator Blood and the up-and-coming Stefi Magnetica.
For the 2024 season, All Too Hard stands for a service fee of $38,500 (inc. GST), with payment on a live foal. For bookings or further information, contact Adam, Harry, McKoy or Peter on (02) 6543 8333.
