JOCKEY Steven Pateman has completed his set of feature jumps race wins by winning the Australian Steeple for the first time.

The 42-year-old won by a length aboard the Ciaron Maher-trained Stern Idol, the Irish-bred Raven’s Pass gelding having now won 10 of his 16 Australian jumps starts.

Carrying a sobering 73kgs in the A$100,000 feature, Stern Idol took up the running with 3,000 of the 3,900m remaining. Challenged at the second last, Stern Idol stole a break approaching the bend to turn for home with a five-length margin. Over the last, Stern Idol held on as Leaderboard ran him down to a length, Pateman having to cop a A$2,000 fine for overuse of the whip prior to the 100m mark.

“He’s amazing,” said Steven Pateman of Stern Idol. “And just a testament to the training too. He could’ve run in steeplechases earlier in the year (Stern Idol bypassed the Warrnambool Carnival this year) and carried big weights.

Knew his job

“He might’ve won one, but it’s too hard all the time, so he just ran in races he was suited in with this as the target. The way he settled today, he knew his job, he knew the trip he had to run out. He was just really chill, and again, testament to the horse and the training performance.”

Stern Idol has failed to finish the past two Grand National Steeples over 4,500m, so it seems unlikely a third attempt will be made considering the top-weight he will likely carry.

TOM Ryan landed his fourth Australian Hurdle at Sandown on Sunday, winning the A$100,000 feature over 3,900 metres aboard the Patrick and Michelle Payne-trained The Cunning Fox.

Ryan was able to take a sit behind the leaders on the Reliable Man gelding before the speed came into the race with 1,200 metres remaining.

As the seven-horse field came down the Sandown hill, The Cunning Fox was battling away, the last of the front four and looking the least likely.

Working hard, Ryan kept his mount’s effort up as the leaders began to feel the distance. Jumping the last in second place, Ryan squeezed one last effort out of The Cunning Fox to sweep past Affluential who faded to third on the line as the Shane Jackson-trained Highland Blaze took second, two lengths astern of The Cunning Fox.

So tough

“He probably should not have won today, but it was only the fact that the horse is so tough,” said Ryan.

“We didn’t go overly quick, and then they quickened at the top of the hill, and I was totally left flat-footed. I said, ‘I’m beaten here’. But to be fair to him, he winged the second-last and I was just hoping to stay on their coat-tails.

“But once we got into the straight, I gave him one backhander is all, and away he went, you could really see him putting the ears back and fighting. He is a tough, tough horse. He has that ‘will to win’ and if we could all buy it we’d be multi-millionaires, but not every horse has it, but I tell you he has it in bucketloads.”

A Listed VRC St Leger runner-up as a three-year-old, the now six-year-old improves his record to six from six over the jumps.

The win also completed a double for Tom Ryan who was successful in the previous aboard the promising Shane Jackson-trained Noonday Gun who took a step forward to win his third hurdle win from three starts having debuted over the jumps in August last year.

“He’s a fair horse,” said Ryan. “I think he’ll be better over further, probably even jumping a fence as well might suit him better.”

LEADING New Zealand-born jockey James McDonald will return to Royal Ascot to ride over the first three days of the meeting.

The 33-year-old has been booked to ride the three-time US Grade 1 winner Carl Spackler in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes, after the recent sale of the Lope De Vega horse to Yuesheng Zhang’s Yulong Investments and subsequent transfer to trainer Ciaron Maher.

McDonald won four races at Royal Ascot in 2022, highlighted by the King’s Stand Stakes aboard Nature Strip.