Thomsen And Young Gun Brewing Up Storm

Sun Herald

Sunday October 23, 2005

By JOHN SCHELL ROSEHILL

BOB Thomsen and his former apprentice Robbie Brewer are back in a big way.

The formidable combination made it city success No.2 in the space of a week yesterday and more are in store, according to the trainer.

Brewer followed Thomsen's instructions to the letter to win the Harvey Norman Handicap on Resistor ($7), and in doing so brought about the downfall of hot-pot Fox Lake ($1.50).

"It's great to see Robbie get the results he deserves," Thomsen said. "He puts the work in of a morning [at trackwork] and this is great for him."

Last Saturday at Randwick, Brewer rode the Thomsen-trained Turban, a two-year-old, to score a last-stride victory, and before Resistor's win yesterday he partnered Thomsen's Attend into third behind Up'N'Doing in the MMB Print Handicap.

While Goulburn-based trainer Danny Williams said he would push on with a start for Fox Lake in a sprint event at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day, Thomsen couldn't stop praising Brewer for his winning ride on Resistor, which was second-up from a spell.

"The intention was to make the favourite [Fox Lake] work hard to clear us from his wide gate, and that's exactly what happened," Thomsen said.

"Then all Robbie had to do was come to his outside in the straight, where I thought the ground was better, and he was home from then."

Resistor scored by three-quarters of a length from Fox Lake, with a further half a length to Gator ($6) in third position.

Williams said he thought Fox Lake, which was ridden by apprentice Kanichiro Fujii, may "not have been in the right place" on the fence in the straight, and added he would have considered attempting to gain a start in Saturday's group 1 Salinger Stakes at Flemington if he had won impressively.

"I was disappointed he was beaten, but his run wasn't bad," said Williams, who has had success at the Flemington carnival before with Normal Practice being placed in a Salinger and Kablammo winning on Melbourne Cup day two years ago.

"Maybe the expectations for him have been too high. I was happy with his run despite being beaten.

"The Salinger is more than likely out of the question now as he would be unlikely to get a run, so he probably won't even be nominated. He'll head towards an open handicap on Melbourne Cup day."

Back to Thomsen, who said he rated Attend as good as Turban, and took heart from the former's third place on debut yesterday.

"There is not a struck match between them," he said of the two fillies.

Attend settled last in her event and had trouble obtaining clear running in the straight before eventually running on stylishly.

Up'N'Doing, which raced greenly in the straight, clung on to score by a half-head over fellow first-starter My Lady's Chamber, with winning jockey Lenny Beasley declaring his mount to be "very professional".