Bjorn Baker’s Robusto wins Group 2 The Ingham at Randwick

Bjorn Baker’s Robusto pulled off the upset of the weekend this Saturday at Randwick in the Group 2 The Ingham. The five-year-old gelding had just $26 odds to win with the betting sites heading into the $2 million race.

Robusto defied the odds and won it by a head to Steparty ($14). Encap, who was another long outsider with $31 odds to win, finished in third, a length behind Robusto.

“Divine intervention” sealed victory

You do not have to be a horse racing betting expert to know that a $26-rated horse winning a race is a major upset. However, Bjorn Baker racing manager Luke Hilton says the result is not as surprising as it seems.

First, Hilton admitted that Robusto needed “a little bit of divine intervention” to win The Ingham as Steparty closed in on him. Besides that though, he thinks the gelding got exactly what he deserved.

“He has done an amazing job this time in. He hasn’t had any luck and he finally drew a gate today and it paid dividends,” Hilton said.

“There were question marks with him at the mile, but when he came up with gate four we were confident he was going well and just had to run out a strong mile.

“Tim (Clark) gave him an absolute peach of a ride.”

Bittersweet for Ingham family

As impressive–and maybe even miraculous–as the big win for Robusto was on Saturday, it was made even more intriguing by the fact that he was actually owned by the sponsors of the race.

The Ingham family bred Robusto, then trained and raced him for almost all of his career. They gave up on the gelding before the start of this horse racing season, selling him to the Darby Racing firm for $160,000 in September.

Just months later, the Ingham’s were presenting him with the winner’s trophy for the $2 million race they sponsor.

Favourites disappoint

Gringotts ($4.40), Private Eye ($6.00), and I'mintowin ($7.00) were the three clear betting apps favourites to win The Ingham on Saturday. Of these three, only Private Eye had a race to be proud of.

The 2021 Epsom Handicap winner finished fourth, 1.68L behind the winner Robusto.

I'mintowin and the much-hyped Gringotts finished 16th and 14th, respectively.