Naku Penda turns Scarborough's fortunes at Valley

Moonee Valley Racing Club chairman Bob Scarborough’s week improved marginally after Craig Williams took the shortest way home to salute on Rockmount pretrainer Naku Penda in the Citywide Services Handicap (1200m) on Wednesday, September 24th.

Scarborough is the owner of Light Fantastic who is currently being checked over by vets following his inglorious performance in last Saturday’s Underwood Stakes at Caulfield.

Williams had Naku Penda ($10) sitting off the speed in the five horse field and waited for the early leader Cardinal Virtue ($2.30) to wobble off the fence as the field straightened.

The Rockmount pretrainer strode to the line to complete a one length win from the $1.75 favourite Tindal who made ground late but appeared to be in need of extra distance.

Gold in Dubai ($8) battled on fairly after trailing the leader throughout to hold on to third, a neck behind Tindal.

Gary Fennessy, representing David Hayes said that the colt’s last start performance when sixth behind Time Thief at on August 27.

“He disappointed us that day, we took him home and had a look at him but there was nothing wrong with him so we gave him a little more time between runs,” he said.
“He’s a bit behind time now because we gave him that extra time between runs; we thought he had enough to be a Guineas horse.

“Even though this was only a midweeker, he showed that he’s a good class horse”.
Naku Penda’s win brings to three the tally of horses that have won city races after being beaten by Time Thief, another Rockmount graduate, on August 27.