Trainer and jockey quotes following the PFD Food Services Gold Coast Cup won by Bonny Ezra at Sunshine Coast on Saturday.
Race Result:
1st: Bonny Ezra (Chris Waller/Jim Byrne) - $6.50
2nd: Tapildoodledo (Kerry Taplin/Mark Du Plessis) - $5
3rd: Bois D'Argent (Annabel Neasham/Ryan Maloney) - $3.70
Winning Time: 2:36.08 Last 600m: 37.30
Margins: 1-½-L x 4L
Winning Trainer: Chris Waller (Stable rep Brett Killion speaking)
On the win: "Very pleasing. He's an old favourite of the stable's. Last start was a little discouraging but blinkers on and he travelled stronger in the run. He was bolting a long way out, I think Jim was pretty pleased with himself. It's great to see."
Testing conditions: "It's great to have a Kiwi in the race. Obviously anything with heavy track form you've got to take notice of today and he does."
Winning Jockey: Jim Byrne
On being back in the winners' stall: "It's been a while. It's like walking a desert, you've just got to keep your head down and focus. Very, very pleased."
Thrilled to get the ride on Bonny Ezra with his wet track form: "Obviously Chris has got a big stable, he's got a lot of riders, he's got to share them out to a lot of riders. I completely understand but I was able to get a light weight opportunity and hopefully was able to make the most of it today."
On how the race panned out: "They didn't go real quick so mid-race I was able to make a couple of moves early on in the run. I wasn't too worried about from the half-mile home, I was able to just get into that nice rhythm. I think he's a little bit of a cheat, so when he hit the front at the 300 I thought 'it's going to be a slog'.
"He hasn't been beaten too far (in previous runs) but sometimes they just need that little bit of extra encouragement and things go their way, and that's the way it went today."