Come Right Back wins by a nose as Adam Durrant enjoys golden end to dominant summer

As the Geraldton Turf Club celebrated its final marquee event of the season, trainer Adam Durrant continued his dominance of country racing with William Pike leading Come Right Back to victory in the Geraldton Gold Cup. Durrant Racing has enjoyed the Geraldton Turf Club this season with 14 wins and 14 placings from his 43 starts at the track, a placing rate of 65 per cent. Come Right Back was unplaced in his past 10 races but with legendary WA jockey William Pike on board, coupled with Durrant’s success at the track, he took on the favourite status ($3.80), with David Harrison’s Gold Friars ($4.20) next in the betting line. As the 14-strong field passed the start-finish line for the first time Durrant’s other charger, Utgard Loki, moved to an early lead joined by Greg Delane’s Minus Looks, with Gordon Spowart’s Edmond moving across from its wide barrier draw to take up third on the outside. Come Right Back was sitting comfortably behind the leaders as Utgard Loki and Edmond put two lengths on the main field down the back straight. Edmond took the lead round the turn but Gold Friars and Come Right Back now made their moves and were closing on the outside. The two were now clear of the field and were brushing against each other into the race finish but Come Right Back had the better closing strides to pip Gold Friars in a photo finish by 0.03 lengths. Ashley Maley’s Sluice Box took home third, with Edmond the best finisher for local trainers in fourth. Pike thanked the team at Durrant Racing for his win. “Thank you to Adam Durrant and his racing team, I get to come here on race day and stand in front of everyone but a lot of hard work has gone in behind the scenes,” he said. “The track was fantastic, I haven’t been here in a while but the grass was nice and long and everyone had their chance today, so thank you to everyone at the club.” Pike celebrated his Gold Cup win by taking out the final race of the day on Ihts Closing Inn in what was a dominant day with another win in race 1 on Celebrity Prince and race three on Classic Encounter. Race two was won by Spowart’s Juruena Gold ahead of Random Rewards and favourite Ryewood, the only Pike-Durrant combination that didn’t win on the day. Julia Martin’s Bold Prophet claimed his first win, by 0.38 lengths ahead of Tony Scally’s Mombasa and Durrant’s Secret Identity. Arabian Riches took out race five, while Rob Gulberti won the second-biggest race of the day, the Abrolhos Plate, with Shaka Zulu.