Emerald Rainbow Secures Goulburn Cup

TRAINER David Geall has always remained confident Emerald Rainbow had a group race success in him, but concedes he didn't expect it to come in Sunday's Group 3 Ladbrokes Goulburn Gold Cup Final (440m).

"It was a big surprise but he really deserved a race like this; he's been a very good dog for a while now," Geall beamed.

"I think Sunday was his fifth group race final. He's been knocking on the door to win one and I knew he had it in him, but to be honest with the way Good Odds Harada has been racing I thought we'd be up against it. He's been bulletproof so we turned up hoping we could run a place more than anything."

Making full use of box two in the $25,000 to-the-winner feature, Emerald Rainbow extended his career record to 26 wins from 77 starts, with Sunday's prize money taking the son of Fernando Bale and Where's Demonica's earnings to $99,125.

His winning time of 24.84, defeating 5 ½ year-old Corleone King by 1 ½ lengths, was the exact same time he recorded when finishing second in his heat behind Spookie Vision.

The run of the Gary Kimber-trained Corleone King was outstanding, making it back-to-back Goulburn Cup placings, while Good Odds Harada lost no admirers with a fast finishing third.

But all the accolades were with the winner.

"He's exactly like his brothers My Redeemer and Fernando Drums who I had to scratch from the final – they'd chase through a brick wall," Geall added.

"Fernando Drums hurt his leg in the heats. I was hoping it would be right but it got progressively worse as the week went on. I'll get it x-rayed on Wednesday.

"There's a few options now for Emerald Rainbow. There's the Melbourne Cup preludes, the Devonport Cup is coming up and the Ballarat Cup isn't far away either."

After Emerald Rainbow's dashing Cup victory Geall was good enough to throw some money on the bar, reminiscent of John Singleton after Belle Du Jour won the 2000 Golden Slipper.

"It was nothing like that," Geall joked.

"I just want to say what a great job everyone at Goulburn do. They make you feel so welcome. After the race I had people coming up to me I didn't even know congratulating me. It's a great environment and atmosphere; they just want to see good dogs racing. It's great."

While Geall tasted victory in the Cup, the Lara mentor made the eight-hour trip home with a winning double after prolific winning sprinter Untold Soldier scored over 350m earlier in the day.

"He was due to jump and he did," Geall added.

"They tell me his 6.34 first split is either the record or close to it. I can read this dog really well … if he misses it away once or twice he's near certain to nail the start next time. He was due on Sunday."

Meanwhile, the other feature on Sunday's Goulburn Cup card was the Goulburn Workers Club Fireball over the 350 metres.

The $8,000 to-the-winner event went to the Ray Holt-trained Sweet City Woman, the daughter of Barcia Bale and My Lady Day recording 19.94, a length slower than the 19.88 Untold Soldier recorded earlier on the card.

Sweet City Woman has now won nine of her 17 starts.