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Mourinho a horse for the true believers

(AAP Image/Hamish Blair)
Roar Guru
27th January, 2015
6

While all eyes were on the return of Dissident on Saturday it was a horse bought at the 2009 Inglis Sales for $36,000 that again stole the show.

The well named Mourinho, who more than likely is named after his Portuguese counterpart, has all the qualities of the Chelsea head coach and on Saturday would’ve divided punters and racing fans again.

For myself I didn’t have an investment financially in the race but wanted to see Dissident return in style. What we got was far from that but it was good to see him run on for a place in his first return back from bleeding.

In fact I had a sigh of relief over the fact that everything seemed to go well from the mandatory three-month spell that is now imposed whenever a horse bleeds. Plus there is much bigger fish to fry in Sydney later in the autumn.

But for mine Mourinho is a horse for the true believers. Purchased for just $36,000 the horse has now amassed just under $807,000 in prize money and has eight career wins from 32 starts.

This includes Saturday’s Group 2 victory over It is Written and Dissident in the Jeep Australia Stakes, but in the spring it also put in memorable runs for second in the Group 2 Dato’ Chan Tin Nam Stakes behind The Cleaner and third in the Group 3 JRA Cup behind The Cleaner again and Sangster.

Mourinho is as honest as the day is long and other memorable performances throughout his career include a second placing at the start of last year at odds of $100-1 in the Group 3 Tab Rewards Stakes, and beating home Gris Caro in the 2013 edition of the JRA Cup.

Plus a win in the Cranbourne Cup last year, also Saturday’s victory was the second time in six starts that Mourinho had saluted at odds of more than $20-1.

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It just shows that spending a fortune on a race horse doesn’t guarantee success and sometimes the cheap diamonds in the field provide the real value. Mourinho is a great advertisement for anyone looking to buy small in the industry.

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