Godolphin colt Barber had plenty against him from the outside barrier in Saturday’s Golden Gift even before a slow getaway left him last and 10 lengths from the leaders, but a minute later he left champion jockey Hugh Bowman stunned and was Golden Slipper favourite.
The Exceed And Excel colt rounded up his 15 rivals, much to the relief of punters who had backed him into a $5 favourite.
Barber missed the start by two lengths and, with the pace on in the 1100m scamper for the green youngsters, the pack split up and Bowman had all but lost sight of the leaders.
Barber gets past Infatuation in the shadows of the post in the Golden Gift.Credit:Getty
“I wasn’t as relaxed as I was when Winx missed the start. The plan was taken out of my hands at that point, so I just had to ride him where he is, and the pace was extreme from the outset,” Bowman said.
“It wasn’t the horse’s fault, it wasn’t my fault, it was just the race circumstance I had to deal with.
“I didn’t think about winning; I just thought about riding the horse to run his race, and that’s all I could do at that point in time.
“As we started to get further into the contest I got more and more confident and at the 200m mark I thought ‘wow, I can’t believe this’.”
It took patience for Bowman to take his medicine and follow the fence until the straight. Then on the turn as he looked to get into clear air, Barber fell off the corner before balancing up again and gunning down Infatuation to win by a half-head, with Summer Loving 1¼ lengths back in third.
“Mid-race you could feel I was detached from the pack. But the horse was happy; I was going to trust him to run his race late. I won’t inject him into the fire, so to speak,” Bowman said.
“That trust I had in him paid off because when I did needed him, I still think he was inclined to think about it and run around a bit, as you saw when I got into clear space.
“He had to dig deep today and he produced, and I would suggest he is one of the top two-year-olds in the country.”
Barber, which is now the $11 Golden Slipper favourite, won the Kirkham Plate on debut and Godolphin master of two-year-olds, Victoria Appleby, had been in a battle to tighten him up for his spring target.
“They usually lose weight as they get into the preparation, but he is such a good doer, he has put it on since that first win,” Appleby said.
“He has been one of better ones, and now he can have a break and get ready for the Golden Slipper, and I think he will get better.”
