Richard plans Cup action

By Stuart Teather
THE Melbourne Cup may still be six months away, but one Clyde trainer already has Australia’s premier race in his mind.
Richard Laming, who co-trains Phaze Action with his father, Bevan, had plenty of reason to celebrate on Saturday when the horse won the listed Andrew Ramsden Stakes at Flemington.
Any win in a listed race is reason enough to smile, but because the race was run over 3200 metres – the same distance as the Cup – Laming said Phaze Action’s owners now had the Cup in their sights.
The win ensures the five-year-old gelding’s name will be thrown around come November, but, according to Laming, he still has plenty of work to do.
“It’s a different race altogether, he’s won over two miles, but to step up to the Melbourne Cup, the time wasn’t that flash, it was five seconds slower than what they run the Melbourne Cup,” he said.
“He could be set for it and run in it, but to be competitive in the Melbourne Cup, he’s got to go up again, it’s a different level again.”
The Ramsden Stakes win was the horse’s biggest in his career and Laming said they had been targeting the race for a while.
“That was his long-term goal, we set him for that race after his last campaign and he obviously had to step up to the mark and be competitive and that he did.
“He’s taken a long time to mature, we’ve been very patient so it was quite satisfying to get him to win over the two miles.”
The win had extra value for Laming, as it was the first victory for a horse from his new property in Clyde.
The trainer had previously worked his horses out of Cranbourne’s training complex, but six months ago he completed work on a private training facility at his base in Clyde and has been training his horses from there ever since.
“We’ve spent quite a bit of money in developing the new training complex – that’s our first big win out of the property.”